#vindex

“Decadence is the abandonment of standards and a levelling-down. It is the pursuit of the common in place of the striving to reach a higher level. Decadence is the wallowing in the transient. But perhaps most of all, on the individual level, decadence is lack of real character. Decadence elevates cleverness, ‘education’ and intellectual pretension over and above experience, courage and heroism. Decadence elevates self-indulgence above self-discipline. Decadence denigrates duty, honour and loyalty. Decadence affirms those things which those of weak character espouse - pacifism, peace, equality, 'harmony’, inter-racial 'love’. Decadence is materialistic - it mocks idealism, the numinous, and the profound, and in place of the aesthetic of beauty, it champions the ugly and the banal. Decadence is, fundamentally, a manifestation of what is weak, shallow, pretentious and vain. It is the philosophy, and the aesthetics, of the coward.”

David W Myatt