"The whole point of Mad Max is that he is the most hardened self-respecting man in the post-apocalyptic world. He lived through the decline, and thus carries all the grief of having been strong enough to see what the world has become."
No, that isn't the point of Mad Max at all. Has this person even seen these movies?
In the first film, Max is a police officer. His wife is murdered by a violent gang and he tracks them down and brutally murders them one by one.
The whole point is that he lost that "self-respect." He became as bad as the animals who murdered his wife. He doesn't "see what the world has become," he is as bad and as empty and as moral-less as the worst of it. He isn't "strong enough," quite the opposite. He wonders the wastelands alone not really caring about anything. In the road warrior, he gets roped into helping this group of idealistic, good people who are trying to get a way to rebuild a good society. He doesn't want to do it at first, and they ultimately trick him, but at the end of the film there is this look of partial redemption as he enters the desert alone. This is furthered in Beyond the Thunderdome. The group of children has grown in isolation from adults and real knowledge of the adult world. They are innocent. Max saves them from the evil in the world. Redemption. That's the point.
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