Complaining about decadence is, almost by definition, a luxury good,” Ross Douthat observes in his new book, The Decadent Society. It is also an easy target for derision if returning to an un-decadent society means, for example, giving up antibiotics. The world in the 21st century is a better place than it has ever been on every measure of material well-being. This is most conspicuously true in the nations of the advanced West that are most open to accusations of decadence.
The New York Times columnist recognizes this, but asks us nonetheless to consider ways in which there is much to complain about. He takes his definition of decadence from Jacques Barzun’s From Dawn to Decadence (2000).
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