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I think the error with using these quotes as a sort of rebuttal to the sentiment is that it’s totally possible for the quotes to be accurate, relative to other
by ericd 4y ago
I think the error with using these quotes as a sort of rebuttal to the sentiment is that it’s totally possible for the quotes to be accurate, relative to other recent times in those areas. A local decline in physical productivity versus, say, 50 years ago. And the productivity 50 years ago might’ve been lower than 50 years prior to that. Especially in particular fields that might’ve once pulled in a high percentage of ambitious people, but don’t anymore, for whatever reason. And many believe that successful societies generally become more decadent.
- KptMarchewa 4y agoSure, we have experience with thousands of years of children degenerating and elders being even more true statesmen, right?
- gcanyon 4y ago"decadent" is a pejorative word for "growing respect for the rights and dignity of workers." What does it say about us that we look back 150 years and say that it's unacceptable that children were engaged in dangerous work and that people worked pretty much as long as there was daylight six days a week, but we look back 30 years and say that people back then had a strong work ethic because they worked unpaid overtime?
- ericd 4y agoAre you sure that’s what people mean when they say “decadent”? I would, for example, include things like hedonism, living beyond one’s means, decreases in frugality, increases in conspicuous consumption, decrease in self-reliance skills. That’s not to blame the people involved, they’re responses to the environment that people find themselves in, and the culture that has developed.