Against Decadence and Mediocrity
Written on July 7, 2022
One thing that is characteristic of today's era is the existence of many things that people use as means to soothe their discomfort and as substitutes for their desires. One would say that today's era is flooded with them.1
The challenge, however, is to say a big NO to those things. The challenge is for people to bear the discomfort that is caused by the situation they are in and, instead of turning to those coping means, begin dedicating time and energy to confront the causes of their discomfort as well as pursuing the things they truly want and desire. This must become a priority because, when a person deals with a decadent situation superficially — by making use of those coping and distracting means — it prolongs the decadent situation and the person becomes fixated on a mediocre and compromising life. And as I have written before, the problem is not the mediocre and compromising life itself — there is nothing inherently wrong or bad about such a life, or about anything else for that matter. The problem is that when someone becomes fixated on a mediocre life, then this fixation becomes an obstacle to a life that can be truly rich and joyful. On top of that, because of the things that someone turns to in order to cope with his or her decadence, a lot of annoying and unnecessary noise (metaphorically speaking) is often created too; many meaningless products and activities are produced and consumed; a lot of unnecessary and stupid information is generated and consumed, as well as many additional problems that may not have existed before in the person's life but which are created by those soothing means.2
But those coping means are not the only things that make a person stuck in a mediocre life and prevent him from pursuing a truly rich and beautiful life. If we also include the creation of illusions about oneself, other people, the world, and the future as an additional mechanism for coping with many problems then, unfortunately, the possibility of actually addressing the causes of decadence and decline and the prospect for real change — both on a personal and sociopolitical level — is reduced even further. I dare say, it becomes almost zero…
This short text has practical implications, dear reader — as most of my texts do. Do not rush to move on to the next thing. Read it again, reflect upon it, keep it in mind, use it as a filter for how you perceive things about your life, yourself, and the world around you, let it interact with the rest of the thoughts that exist in your mind and then, when you move on, choose wisely what you will do next.
Thank you for reading.
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Examples of those things are, among others: social media, alcohol, video games, porn, junk food.
One such example, among many others, is smoking, which someone may do to cope with stress, but in doing so, end up creating health problems from smoking itself that he or she may not have had before.
"Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without". We don't need, literally, most of the stuff we are screamed at to buy.
Speaking of the word decadence it is a perfect one word description of Donald Trump and his family of benighted grifters, many/most of his Cabinet picks and diplomatic appointments and the MAGA movement altogether.