The dictionary defines “decadence” as the act or process of falling into inferior condition or state, moral degeneration or decay or unrestrained or excessive self-indulgence.
This is often attributed as one of the reasons why empires fall, a good example being the Roman Empire. And this is also a great definition of our society right now.
All the social and technological improvements of the last decades were supposed to make us richer, healthier, smarter and happier than ever before. But are we really?
In French we have this expression to define how most people live: “metro, bulot, dodo”, meaning, we commute, we work and we go to sleep. Rinse and repeat.
In the past, many people fought tooth and nail for the freedom of the individual, specially from the church and state. While their cause was perfectly justified and valid, this new-found freedom gave birth to another master for us to slave to: the market. And this new master has a much greater influence in our lives than the church and the state.
We don’t control the markets. They control us. We were told that to grow the markets we need freedom. That translates into: everything is acceptable as long as someone makes a profit.
The market demands that jobs are shipped to countries where labor is cheaper and human and environmental rights don’t apply. But no worries, if we work more, if we give everything we are to the markets, we will have more money, so we can keep spending all the way to the grave.
The markets require that we drain our planet out of its natural resources, that we pollute the air, the ground and the water, that we drive millions of species to extinction and that we treat each other like nothing more than disposable objects.
Greed, corruption, narcissism and over competitiveness have all become normal and acceptable. A CEO who behaves like a psychopath is a hero as long as the shareholders of his company keep making money and he bring home millions. People identify that kind of person as successful, someone to look up to, the example to follow. Never mind how much destruction his company causes, that’s irrelevant. Just look at how much he’s achieved.
Most people want a happy, healthy lifestyle but that’s not what we’re getting. The family, the most fundamental building block of society is decaying spectacularly. Everything has become so disposable that we started to deal with our relationships the same way we deal with stuff: if it doesn’t fit the criteria throw it away and get another one.
We add and subtract people as if they were mere things. Our work environment is becoming more and more casual, without commitment, the gig economy or whatever. They tell us we need a more flexible work force to keep us competitive, but that flexibility means that younger people can no longer plan their lives and do what was once normal: have job security, buy a house, start a family. We live day to day, hoping that tomorrow we still have enough to get by and that we won’t need to move back to our parent’s basement.
We live in a world full of economic enslavement, moral decay and cultural confusion. Like in ancient Rome, after a period of progress, we are succumbing to self-indulgence and moral decay, filling our lives with excesses that we know will cost us dearly and cause our own fall.
Our culture, devoid of moral values and spirituality, sees only the superficial, but that superficial is not enough to make people believe that their lives are satisfying and fulfilling. Can we keep living like this? Sure. But looking at the rates of depression, anxiety, drug use and suicide, it's not working too well.
This is often attributed as one of the reasons why empires fall, a good example being the Roman Empire. And this is also a great definition of our society right now.
All the social and technological improvements of the last decades were supposed to make us richer, healthier, smarter and happier than ever before. But are we really?
In French we have this expression to define how most people live: “metro, bulot, dodo”, meaning, we commute, we work and we go to sleep. Rinse and repeat.
In the past, many people fought tooth and nail for the freedom of the individual, specially from the church and state. While their cause was perfectly justified and valid, this new-found freedom gave birth to another master for us to slave to: the market. And this new master has a much greater influence in our lives than the church and the state.
We don’t control the markets. They control us. We were told that to grow the markets we need freedom. That translates into: everything is acceptable as long as someone makes a profit.
The market demands that jobs are shipped to countries where labor is cheaper and human and environmental rights don’t apply. But no worries, if we work more, if we give everything we are to the markets, we will have more money, so we can keep spending all the way to the grave.
The markets require that we drain our planet out of its natural resources, that we pollute the air, the ground and the water, that we drive millions of species to extinction and that we treat each other like nothing more than disposable objects.
Greed, corruption, narcissism and over competitiveness have all become normal and acceptable. A CEO who behaves like a psychopath is a hero as long as the shareholders of his company keep making money and he bring home millions. People identify that kind of person as successful, someone to look up to, the example to follow. Never mind how much destruction his company causes, that’s irrelevant. Just look at how much he’s achieved.
Most people want a happy, healthy lifestyle but that’s not what we’re getting. The family, the most fundamental building block of society is decaying spectacularly. Everything has become so disposable that we started to deal with our relationships the same way we deal with stuff: if it doesn’t fit the criteria throw it away and get another one.
We add and subtract people as if they were mere things. Our work environment is becoming more and more casual, without commitment, the gig economy or whatever. They tell us we need a more flexible work force to keep us competitive, but that flexibility means that younger people can no longer plan their lives and do what was once normal: have job security, buy a house, start a family. We live day to day, hoping that tomorrow we still have enough to get by and that we won’t need to move back to our parent’s basement.
We live in a world full of economic enslavement, moral decay and cultural confusion. Like in ancient Rome, after a period of progress, we are succumbing to self-indulgence and moral decay, filling our lives with excesses that we know will cost us dearly and cause our own fall.
Our culture, devoid of moral values and spirituality, sees only the superficial, but that superficial is not enough to make people believe that their lives are satisfying and fulfilling. Can we keep living like this? Sure. But looking at the rates of depression, anxiety, drug use and suicide, it's not working too well.
