Disintegration

A hallmark of imperial decay is that resource-rich peoples let the principles that brought them success erode in favor of idle, luxurious behaviors that divide and dilute meaningful social life.

Today there are a lot of public call-outs on those who say or do something that shows a lack of toughness, i.e. wimping or whining. But there is little calling out for what gets people there: excessive luxury and idle pursuit. Excessive luxury and idle pursuits sometimes follow excessive, slavish work to obtain the temporary feeling of control over one’s well being. Instead of living a balanced life of love of others and contentment, there is too much bouncing about the extremes to try to attain ‘the ideal life.’

There are more ideologies than meet the eye, and ideologies almost always make for unwell politics, whether personal, social, or nation state. Idleness leads to ideology where work and morals go on the shelf, and explanations are sought to shift responsibility to the other instead of leading by example and taking responsibility ourselves. Ideology always tends to explain why someone else should suffer while we are protected, or why someone else should lose while we gain. And that sort of thinking makes us sick.

Idle, over-luxurious pursuits would include anything in excess. For example, gaming, unnecessary spending, media immersion, smoking more weed than is medical, overeating, drinking too much, substance abuse, and even too much of one kind of work, that is, working solely for more money rather than for good results at home and at work.

What is the upshot? Disintegration.

History professors cite poly-factorial causes for history’s successes, failures, tragedies, and trends. It is hard to rely on just one factor to explain everything. And so it is with imperial disintegration or a neglected human relationship. The exit interviews have the estranged participants saying that they couldn’t really say exactly when it all fell apart, just that it did.

Yet that answer comes from the materially overwhelmed, jaded, and uninterested state of mind that led to disintegration in the first place. It is just another symptom.

Once again, it is the old fashioned values of character and morals growing out of our human relationships that are the nutritional ingredients of good social life, national integration, and wellness in any body politic. It isn’t politics that make politics sustainable, it is social cohesion and wellness in the Republic.