What happens when the world is phony?

In the world of Holden Caulfield, when the world is phony, Holden hates the world and the phony people who inhabit it. Holden's use of the word "phony" is frequent, and he uses it not only to describe people he dislikes but to describe people who aren't open to him and people who aren't likeminded. Holden claims that phony people, whose crimes are often as minor as simply being a grown-up, are jerks and bastards, but this hostility might disguise a feeling of envy or frustration. If Holden's use of the word "phony" is actually a defense mechanism meant to distract the reader from Holden's need to be needed, then perhaps the answer to this question changes. If the world is phony, then Holden is even lonelier than he suspects he is, as his vulnerability makes him too anxious and distracted by his own sensitivities to see the phonies for what they really are: ordinary people just doing the best they can to survive.