{"id":67350,"date":"2023-06-16T06:00:21","date_gmt":"2023-06-16T10:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=67350"},"modified":"2023-06-10T17:54:28","modified_gmt":"2023-06-10T21:54:28","slug":"when-a-culture-reaches-the-stage-of-decadence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2023\/06\/when-a-culture-reaches-the-stage-of-decadence\/","title":{"rendered":"When a Culture Reaches the Stage of “Decadence”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

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The word \u201cdecadence\u201d is a metaphor that derives from \u201cdecay,\u201d when something that was once alive decomposes.<\/p>\n

\u201cDecadence\u201d as a stage of culture has a long history.\u00a0 The Wikipedia article<\/a> on the subject gives these contemporary definitions.\u00a0 Historian Jacques Barzun says decadence is when \u201cthe forms of art as of life seem exhausted, the stages of development have been run through. Institutions function painfully.\u201d<\/p>\n

Columnist Ross Douthat, who has written a book on the subject<\/a>, says\u00a0 \u00a0decadence is a state of \u201ceconomic stagnation, institutional decay and cultural and intellectual exhaustion at a high level of material prosperity and technological development.\u201d<\/p>\n

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By these standards, contemporary American culture has become decadent.\u00a0 The forms of art are exhausted?\u00a0 Hollywood keeps making the same movies over and over.\u00a0 The same can be said of modern art and literature.\u00a0 Our institutions are indeed functioning painfully.\u00a0 We are indeed intellectually exhausted.\u00a0 And yet we have a lot of material prosperity and technological development.<\/p>\n

I came across another definition in a book review<\/a> in \u201cQuillette,\u201d in which Robert Zubrin concludes, \u201cIf you think that the world has had quite enough of freedom, progress, science, and reason, this is the book for you.\u201d\u00a0 In the course of that takedown, he says this:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe French historian Fernand Braudel remarks in Out of Italy<\/em> that \u201cdecadence\u201d is what occurs in a civilization when it rejects the ideas and ideals responsible for its origin and growth.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This formulation has the virtue of being specific.\u00a0 And I think it holds up.<\/p>\n

The Roman Republic was famous for its virtue, its rule of law, and the rights of its citizens.\u00a0 This degenerated into the decadence of the Roman Empire, notorious for its sexual depravity, its cruelty, and its absolutism.<\/p>\n

The Victorians were famous for their propriety and their sense of duty.\u00a0 The later 19th century bohemians who called themselves \u201cthe Decadents\u201d were known for their licentiousness and irresponsibility.<\/p>\n

The United States of America is currently in the midst of a wholesale reaction against its founding and its founding principles. Elements of both the left and the right are criticizing \u201cliberal democracy.\u201d Freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and other civil liberties are receiving little respect. Free market economics, personal liberty, limited government, individualism, and other foundational values of American culture are being repudiated from all sides.<\/p>\n

Instead, we are getting. . .the opposite of all of these.<\/p>\n

American culture is decomposing.<\/p>\n

We have become decadent.<\/p>\n