I think that the last meal thing comes from the times when people in prison were fed dry bread and something or nothing, i.e. when they were given almost nothing to eat. But why this could be a last wish is absolutely inexplicable to modern man, you're right. But now, reading this, and prompted by recent reflections, I'm thinking this: Suicide is forbidden, right? Taking your own life, for whatever reason, is stigmatized with threats of all sorts. At the same time, taking someone else's life isn't that big of a deal. It's true, you'll be sentenced, but if you're sentenced to death, i.e. some people decide that you should die, that's not a big deal either. And how many people's lives are taken in wars by other people - that's also not a big deal. Isn't that a huge paradox?
Regarding the lack of desire in people to help, this is another modern paradox that I have observed for many years in a country like Bulgaria, where man is a wolf to man, as they say. But that this terrible trait of human nature is spreading in Western European countries, I did not know, and I did not suspect that it could happen.🤔Enjoying the suffering of others could be explicable in poor countries. But absolutely inexplicable in the rich ones.