May 18, 2026
Modern Decadence

Many people think that our world is sick, afflicted by every kind of pathology. But it is enough to read—not even history itself, but simply a few novels (for example, Les Misérables by Victor Hugo, or the French Naturalist literature of the 19th century)—to realize how widespread crime and madness were in the age of poverty before industrialization. Then again, ever since the time of Cicero, people have been saying “O tempora, o mores,” but it is only an illusion contradicted by the facts.