The Decadent Society: How We Became the Victims of Our Own Success Hardcover – February 25, 2020

So what is decadence? It is not simply gorging ourselves on gout-inducing sweetmeats as we jerk on Princess Leia's chain and contemplate our mountainous accumulation of fat. It is the sense that we have come to the end of something important, that music, art, architecture, thought, imagination were once great and are now repetitive, stagnant and mediocre. It is the sense that nothing important is happening and that we are so hungry for authentic drama that we are at the point of risking catastrophe in order to obtain it.RD's new book is a long reflection on this phenomenon, on its etiology and on the possible ways in which we might be released from it. Some of the book is strong cultural history. For example, the birth rate in the west is precipitously low. This may be a symptom of our anomie but it is also traceable to a number of obvious factors—the so-called sexual revolution, the women's movement, the broad availability of pornography, the cost of housing and other elements of family formation, the omnipresence of video games and so on. A world in which individuals do not marry, or marry later, or have fewer or no children leads to loneliness, both for the individual in early adulthood and in late middle age, when the absence of siblings and other familial relatives takes its toll. This is very important and the development of sex robots is not a hopeful sign.Other parts of the book are more imaginative/speculative. For example, just how important was the space program and its diminution in recent years? How important is it that we go to Mars? Why? There are certainly societies to which we might point as warnings (the nature and extent of pornography in Japan) and others (well, one) to which we might point for hope—Israel, where there is a solid birth rate, great science and religious fervor.The final segment of the book looks at ways in which we might become freed of our decadence. These are wild and woolly: a link between Catholic Africa and Christian China that helps leads to a new great awakening; increased space travel; a special revelation from God, with an intervention in human history . . . .The book is never dull, but it is often frustrating. Covering virtually all of human history, particularly since the enlightenment, and ranging across all of human experience, we enjoy watching a nimble and informed intellect at work, but the subject is so vast that we see the special pleading implicit in the selection of specific cases. The discussion of economics and recent presidential administrations, e.g., is constantly open to question because of, as Bob Seger would say, what was left in and what was left out. RD is a NYTimes 'conservative', which is to say he is at the center and strays center-right from time to time but feels comfortable straying center-left as well. Think of the sometimes genius, sometimes whackiness of David Brooks in this regard.In some ways this is essentially a think piece, not a book that argues a thesis. It doesn't say, "This is where we are and, hence, this is what we must do." It is rather one that says, "This is where we are and I feel the need for change. This could happen . . . that could happen . . . this might occur . . . this could change . . . . " I might encapsulate it as being an extended response to Fukuyama's notion of the end of history. RD does not want history to end because it would simply be a kind of giving up, a wasting of the human intellect and human capacity . . . and it would be boring. The fact that so many options are presented (including an extension of an Islam that would be more faithful to the middle-age modernism-accommodating Islam rather than its more reactionary, fundamentalist, contemporary incarnations) is a somewhat odd 'program' coming from a practicing Christian. It suggests the lukewarmness to which he is, at other points, opposed and infers that any break from our current boredom would be preferable to that 'decadence'.It would take another book or two or three to offer alternatives, but the incremental growth rooted in tradition but also traditional values that we associate, e.g., with Edmund Burke, is an obvious choice. Many of our current problems can be traced to precipitous changes whose dire side effects were not anticipated. How can we roll some of those back? How can we ameliorate our current condition without profoundly disrupting it (again and again)? This is what I would have expected from a center-right Christian thinker.

I've always enjoyed Douthat's political and cultural commentary, a sane and thoughtful voice in a clickbait world that seems to reward pure madness. The Decadent Society is Douthat's effort to assess the state of things in the Western world, and to take a stab at what's next.As to the state of things, Douthat spends the first part of the book arguing (as have many others) that we are in a period of decadence that has stretched on since the end of the space age. The four indicators of decadence he cites are: stagnation, sterility, sclerosis and repetition. He does an admirable job of making the case that this is the state of Western society.Part 2 of the book is Douthat's analysis of how decadence has stretched on as long as it has, and how it might comfortably continue on throughout much of Western society. The rise of the internet and ubiquitous entertainment have made us "comfortably numb," elites (now rentiers rather than innovators) have a stake in perpetuating the current decadence, and there is a lack of real rivals. Other emerging civilizations seem to be approaching their own level of decadence (China being the top example). Douthat also points out that decadence may well be pretty comfortable for an awful lot of people, thus decreasing the likelihood that disruptors take hold and bring real change.The final part of the book is a look at what could come next if the current decadence is not sustainable. Douthat spends time thinking through possible catastrophic upheavals, as well as the likelihood of various causes for a coming renaissance. Finally he compares the current global civilization to the Roman empire. It it possible we have reached the apex of what man can do, in which case, is decadence the necessary result? Absent space exploration with more worlds to see, discover and leap to, or some outside intervention (divine or the result of another society's space exploration), will decadence be the inevitable outcome?This is a fascinating book. Highly recommended.

From the looks of the title, I thought this was going to be about how indulgent our society has become (think of eating cake while taking a bubble bath with a 24K gold leaf facial mask on). Instead, the writer uses the term “decadent” to mean stagnation in our society.Basically, the US has not been growing as much as it did in the 1950s. We haven’t really made revolutionary progress since flying people to the moon in the 1960s. But what about iPhones and Teslas? Sure, they made our lives easier but they aren’t game changes like indoor plumbing. At the end of the day, you can make a phone call on a regular phone or use your computer to look up stuff and send emails. A Tesla will get you from point A to point B just like my used car.All great societies contract, and the author goes through factors that prevent us from further developing. It’s no secret our socioeconomic and political systems are at a stalemate. Our birth rate has declined. There’s also the looming climate change crisis that is going to radically change immigration patterns, which will lead to a worldwide upheaval.The book is doom and gloom, but let’s face it...we’re on a path of destruction if we don’t recognize that we’re stuck in mud. It’s even more realistic to read it right now during the pandemic.Even though the concepts were thought provoking, I’m giving it 4 stars because it is a difficult book to read. Definitely not light summer reading.

Rave reviews and good PR but a disappointment. The book begins well, laying out its thesis about the glory daysof space travel being 50 years in the past with no notable progress since except the Internet. The idea that we're now stuck in stagnation, sterility, sclerosis and repetition is easy to establish but Douthat succumbs to exactly thispattern of repetition himself. It's a wordy and shallow text amounting to little more than journalistic masturbation, and far too US-focused to appeal to readers in the rest of the world.

Mr. Douthat should probably watch the new Mr. Rogers movie.

The author writes for the Nyt and he has an exact vision about many questions of our society,. The Usa don't be more a winner power, after Obama they have begun to remain into them-selves. That could mean also that with an objective more concrete the progress is more sure. In fact the Universities and the Silicon Valley continue to produce an efficient research. A glass half void half to drink. A message probably quietly, but also of hoping.

The book begins with a brilliant thesis: the western civilization is a decadent one, and shows cleverly how stagnation is spreading in many fields (arts, tecnology, economics, politics, demographics...). Incredibly the last chapter, which should tell us what awaits next, is about miracles, UFOS and religious cults. Simply unacceptable.3/4 parts of the book are interesting, though

I had different expectations. Douthat is an excellent editorialist, but this book failed to pull together in the end.