Written by Imann Shamsi.
We typically think of decadence vis-à-vis its milder forms, of luxury and indulgence. But in his book The Age of Decadence, Ross Douthat uses the word to mean ‘economic stagnation, institutional decay and cultural and intellectual exhaustion at a high level of material prosperity and technological development’. What characterises a decadent society is a lack of original or innovative thinking, creative fatigue, repetitiveness – in short, decay, of which culture and politics are necessarily a part.
Douthat, a conservative, white, American man, is part of a demographic that has long been at the helm of, well, everything. It’s not inconceivable that his social commentary, focused as it is on Western society, could be a defensive response to the relative progress being made in the global south. But the notions of decadence and decay that he puts forth are unique, and certainly worth exploring.
What, then, makes the idea of cultural decay so persuasive? It’s not just the perverse attractiveness of a glass-half-empty mindset, which endures even when we do see societal and cultural progress. Beyond this, for better or for worse, Western culture and hegemony has long been established as the standard, even amidst the decline of Western democracy and the increasing prominence of non-Western cultures. The concern over cultural decay, especially juxtaposed with the perceived political and cultural dynamism of the 70s and 80s, seems broadly to do with nostalgia – which invites the chicken-and-egg question of whether nostalgia is exacerbating a greater sense of cultural decay, or whether existing decay encourages a growing idealisation of the past.
In either case, elements of nostalgia in a decadent society, in Douthat’s view, are manifold. Contemporary cultural discourse cycles through the same issues without offering fresh perspectives. We have all the required technology and more to facilitate the creation of innovative art and media, but still we go back to remakes, sequels, formulaic choices. Think live-action How To Train Your Dragon, or the perpetual additions to the already crowded Marvel universe: entertaining, yes, but safe rather than original.
And because culture and politics respond to each other, there is even a political nostalgia, almost harking back to the Cold War and the space race, that underlies the argument for the existence of a decadent society. That era, with its grand scale of technological and industrial growth, seemed in comparison to foster a collective sense of purpose and an aspiration to greatness, which extended beyond the purposes of national security and reached the average citizen. In hindsight, there are clear issues with predicating a cultural and even national identity on the aspirations of such a volatile time, and yet several major events – the election and re-election of Donald Trump, for one – are partially attributed to the populist nostalgia for a ‘better time’. Apparently, the grass really is always greener, even when the other side is a period far more unstable than our reality; that idealisation of the past goes hand-in-hand with the experience of stagnation.
In the decadent society, all the resources needed to identify sociopolitical issues exist, but we can’t muster up the same effort that had, in the past, amounted to revolution and the enactment of change. Radical political participation has effectively become a simulation of the real thing, a performance – passionate and confrontational as viewed through our phones, relatively inconsequential when you close the app and look around you. It feels like the safe way to participate, but it is a stagnant safety, not a sensible one. A quick scroll through your X timeline likely shows that this, of all Douthat’s beliefs, is one of the most readily evident.
But if it’s radical action we’re searching for to counterbalance decay, we need not look any further than the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement, the January 6th Capitol riots, far-right anti-immigration protests in the UK, or the global movement for Palestinian liberation (which, incidentally, Douthat has scorned as supporting a ‘revolutionary struggle led by Islamist fanatics’). The political ideas themselves are not always new or revolutionary, but their increasingly widening spheres of influence are, and we have the digital age to thank for that newfound reach.
What has been apparent for decades now is that culture, in the digital age, is created and disseminated very differently than in previous generations. That it is different doesn’t mean it is necessarily decaying, but there is an argument to be made for a cultural shift away from community and shared goals, in favour of personal branding and online validation. In trying to reverse societal decadence and decay, then, it is tempting to lean further into the nostalgia of a time where culture, tradition, and community were far more widespread – but so too were racism, imperialism, and economic inequality, all of which have yet to be fully eradicated, and this points to the danger of attempting to wholly replicate the past.
If we try to look towards the future instead, Douthat feels we are running out of ideas, new ventures, innovations that can create economic success. But ideas and progress are not material resources; they can never really ‘run out’, because they are built up cumulatively over time. In the same vein, innovation doesn’t always mean creating entirely new ideas or purposes all the time, and to do so nowadays would in fact be remarkable. Modern-day innovation often requires an ability to rethink and move around what already exists, putting things together in new ways, rather than making the assumption of stagnation.
Try as we might, however, we won’t know where the current era is situated in the grand scheme of decadence and decay until we’re past it. Cultural development, unlike scientific or technological advancement, doesn’t have measurable goals and steps to progress. It was only after the Renaissance had happened that we were able to look back and label it as such. Because our basis of comparison is entirely retrospective, it’s possible that we, Douthat, and others will look back in another few decades and describe the 2020s as a post-pandemic revival of political activity and creativity. But the opposite is possible too, that this is just the beginning of an increasingly decadent and stagnant world – only time will tell.
References
Brynjolfsson, E. & McAfee, A., 2014. The Innovation Dilemma: Is America Stagnating?. [Online] Available at: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/the-innovation-dilemma-is-america-stagnating [Accessed 17 November 2024].
Douthat, R., 2020. The Age of Decadence. [Online] Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/07/opinion/sunday/western-society-decadence.html [Accessed 15 November 2024].
Douthat, R., 2024. The Limits of Moralism in Israel and Gaza. [Online] Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/11/opinion/foreign-policy-israel-gaza.html[Accessed 17 November 2024].
Linker, D., 2020. Comfortably numb America. [Online] Available at: https://theweek.com/articles/895167/comfortably-numb-america [Accessed 15 November 2024].
Potter, A., 2021. On Decline: Stagnation, Nostalgia, and Why Every Year is the Worst One Ever. 1st ed. Ontario: Biblioasis.
Wiseman, O., 2020. Decadence in the time of corona: A conversation with Ross Douthat. [Online] Available at: https://thecritic.co.uk/decadence-in-the-time-of-corona-a-conversation-with-ross-douthat/ [Accessed 17 November 2024].
Comments