Decadence
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Decadence generally refers to the supposed decline of a society because of moral weakness. The favourite example of this is ancient Rome, where, the story has it, a great empire was laid low by wicked emperors like Nero. However, the more dissolute emperors (Caligula, Nero, etc) ruled hundreds of years before the end of the empire (see also Roman decadence).
In modern use, decadence is often defined as a decline in or loss of excellence, obstructing the pursuit of ideals. It is typified by the elevation of cleverness, education, and intellectual pretension over experience and tradition, and is often considered materialistic.
In literature, Decadence was the name given, first by hostile critics, and then triumphantly adopted by some writers themselves, to a number of late nineteenth century fin de siècle writers who were associated with Symbolism or the Aesthetic movement and who relished artifice over the earlier Romantics' naive view of nature (see Rousseau). Some of these writers were influenced by the tradition of the Gothic novel and by the poetry and fiction of Edgar Allan Poe.
Vladimir Lenin continued and extended the use of the word "decadence" in his theory of imperialism to refer to economic matters underlying political manifestations. According to Lenin, capitalism had reached its highest stage and could no longer provide for general development of society. He expected reduced vigor in economic activity and a growth in unhealthy economic phenomenon, because society was ripe for socialist revolution in the West. Politically, World War I proved the decadent nature of the advanced capitalist countries to Lenin, that capitalism had reached the stage where it would destroy its own prior achievements more than it would advance.
Followers of Trotsky have split over the extent to which to uphold Lenin as against Trotsky's theory of permanent revolution. However, followers of Stalin have generally defended the "decadence" thesis of Lenin's theory of imperialism against Trotskyists. Trotskyists tend to stress that capitalism in the West is still progressive and marching forward technologically with the steady accumulation of capital. Followers of Lenin such as Mao and Stalin have argued that there is nothing left for imperialism to do but die, because it has nothing progressive to contribute anymore.
One who directly opposed the idea of decadence as expressed by Lenin was José Ortega y Gasset in [The Revolt of the Masses](1930). He argued that the "mass man" had the notion of material progress and scientific advance deeply inculcated to the extent that it was an expectation. He also argued that contemporary progress was opposite the true decadence of the Roman Empire.
See also
Thinkers of decadence:- Boulainvilliers
- Louis de Bonald
- Joseph de Maistre
- Friedrich Nietzsche
- Oswald Spengler's The Decline of the West (1918)
Head Automatica's 2004 Album, Decadence
Further reading
- Richard Gilman, Decadence: The Strange Life of an Epithet. ISBN 0374135673
- Matei Calinescu, Five Faces of Modernity. ISBN 0822307677
- Mario Praz, The Romantic Agony (1930). ISBN 0192810618
- Jacques Barzun, From Dawn to Decadence (2000). ISBN 0060175869
- A. E. Carter, The Idea of Decadence in French Literature (1978). ISBN 0802070787
External links
- [The Decadent Generation]
- [A Contribution Towards a Critique of the Theory of Decadence] (Leninist use)
- [Chronology of Decadence]
- [Decadence, symbolist, and the fin de siècle: a notebook]
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