Moral Decay and Civilizational Rebirth
When Robert Wright wrote of “ossifying” societies unable to stand the test of barbarians in the ancient and medieval worlds, in Nonzero:The Logic of Human Destiny, he was explicit that a moral critique often correlated with economic/darwinian fitness. Rome, for example, eschewed adaptive technological innovation due to it’s heavy reliance on inexpensive slave labor. Oligarchic societies fit the moral decay theory because oligarchies focus on the zero sum game of extracting existing wealth from the population instead of creating and accumulating it. The extraction process requires an expensive social architecture of control and this is subject to diminishing returns. At a certain point, any system reaches the tipping point on adding the next level of non-productive complexity and begins to unravel.
What if the historical ratchet could be reversed?
What if the excess complexity could be systemically pared back along with the opportunities for corruption and self-aggrandizement that required countermeasures?
Societies are occasionally capable of moral and political renovation, cases in point, the Glorious Revolution and the Meiji Restoration, both of which tied ancient ideals to new political forms while sweeping away a corrupt elite. The American Revolution period, through the adoption of the US Constitution would be another example of societal transformation. These successes, which involve constitutional reforms and a rejuvenated political economy are essentially of a social contractual nature and are rare. Failure is more common, as with Sulla’s bloody reforms that temporarily got rid of bad actors and rebooted the Roman Republic to an older, more virtuous model but failed to address the fact that the structural flaws of the Republic itself were the problem, not the ambition of Marius.
Things are not yet too far gone. There is much that is wrong with the United States but we have a more resilient and coherent foundation upon which to reconstruct than did the Romans of the 1st century BC.
America has many Mariuses but a better Republic.
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Joseph Fouche:
October 13th, 2010 at 4:57 am
It’s probably more accurate to say that the Meiji Restoration, the Dutch Conquest of 1689, and the American Revolution were all cases of one faction of elites forcing another faction of elites out in the name of a higher form of corruption.
zen:
October 13th, 2010 at 12:56 pm
Hi JF,
Curtis Gale Weeks:
October 13th, 2010 at 1:40 pm
Two forms or concepts of the origin of morality:
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1) Calls for morality, proselytizing, formal or systematized morality, can somehow lead out of the darkness or reestablish a more-or-less homogeneous morality system-wide; or, if not homogeneous, then at least establish a sense of morality in those most likely to have the greatest effective impact on the system.
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2) The spontaneous emergence of morality or moral stances system-wide as so many individuals, perceiving current lack of same, adjust their own efforts to respond to the observed deficiencies. Similarly, this view of the origin of morality might look for a general homogeneity or else might look for this emergence in a sufficient number of influential persons.
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IMO, #1 is a dead-end. It may be true that a harping on the subject will have the effect of nudging the required persons in a general direction, or at least nudge them to open their eyes; however, the possibility exists that the proselytizers may be somewhat incorrect in their view of what is or is not moral, so that the net result could be something like what JF seems to be suggesting. The possibility also exists that static in the system could counter any attempts at proselytizing or even corrupt the message/morality being preached.
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#2 is more hopeful and more likely–particularly in America, so long as any trends toward centralization of efforts are not absolute.
joey:
October 13th, 2010 at 1:50 pm
All those example relied on an extreme form of existential crises. Two of them were born of violent struggles in which one side was totally vanquished, the other triggered a violent attempt at counter revolution. Perhaps Colberts reforms (administrative) in France, or the process where the industrial unrest in 19th century Britain was dealt with (gradual enfranchisement) mitigating the worst effects of laissez faire industrialization. Communist ideas were born from the misery of the british working class, but reform ment that communism never took hold in the country of its birth.
Curtis Gale Weeks:
October 13th, 2010 at 2:11 pm
All this has me thinking of Marx’s "revolution-seeds of its own destruction" conceptualization — although it originated earlier — since the spontaneous emergence of moral stances system-wide or in a sufficient number of persons can coalesce and become centralized, creating a bubble-morality that, though it may work well for the system for a time, with changing circumstances must always burst if it doesn’t adapt. However, I’m not a fan of believing in unchanging, repetitive dynamics equally applicable to all times and all systems. With multiculturalism and globalization, the constant assaults on any would-be bubble may limit the formation of those bubbles or at least their lifespans and scope. (Localized bubbles may be more likely to last a bit longer so long as the effects of multiculturalism and/or globalization are forestalled.)
Joseph Fouche:
October 13th, 2010 at 5:34 pm
More complex. The forms of corruption enabled by the adoption of the Bataviasphere framework enable complexity so dense that most people aren’t aware its corruption.
Matt Wilson:
October 13th, 2010 at 5:36 pm
It strikes me that the principal political failings of our time are not overt corruption and moral decay but rather a form of moral extremism; democracy has been neutralized by the effective implementation of wedge issues–there are so many "lines in the sand" that people are unwilling to cross. It’s not that our elites have gradually migrated to their ex-urban farms and would prefer to pay off the visigoths than fight them; its that our body politic is unwilling to stomach authentic encounters with itself. We would do well to remember that Rome survived the "Fall" attributed to it by Gibbon. What we would recognize as Rome became located somewhat further east, in Byzantium.Rather than combat the moral failings of their representative leadership, the polity chooses to demonize outsiders and, increasingly, internal factions that dissent from the established narrative.I am skeptical of overarching narratives of ascendency and decay, but regardless of its cause political renovation is urgently needed.
TDL:
October 13th, 2010 at 6:47 pm
JF,
Since I’ve only read a little of your writings could you clarify the Bataviasphere for me. I think this would help in clarifying what you see as the forms of corruption that were created in the post Revolutionary period.
Regards,
TDL