Yesterday's post covered Stage five. The Age of Intellect in Sir John Glubb's, The Fate of Empires.

Which brings us to:

Stage six. The Age of Decadence

This section has so many points that relate to our current society, it's going to be difficult doing anything other than blockquoting the entire thing.

It's also so big, I'm splitting it into several parts.

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As the nation declines in power and wealth, a universal pessimism gradually pervades the people, and itself hastens the decline.

Frivolity is the frequent companion of pessimism. Let us eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die.

But make sure your beer only has 64 calories and the bold, clean taste of hard soda.

Use them to wash down your anti-depressants.

The heroes of declining nations are always the same—the athlete, the singer or the actor. The word ‘celebrity’ today is used to designate a comedian or a football player, not a statesman, a general, or a literary genius.

Did you see Conan O'Brien last night?

Comedy Genius, they dressed him up like a woman.

The works of the contemporary historians of Baghdad in the early tenth century are still available. They deeply deplored the degeneracy of the times in which they lived, emphasising particularly the indifference to religion, the increasing materialism and the laxity of sexual morals. They lamented also the corruption of the officials of the government and the fact that politicians always seemed to amass large fortunes while they were in office.

It's a good thing our modern politicians are so very honorable and honest, oh and hardworking.

Yeah, we've got good politicians now.

I want to remind you, Glubb isn't saying these things are actually causing the collapse of the empires, they're just the indicators of which stage they're in.

The historians commented bitterly on the extraordinary influence acquired by popular singers over young people, resulting in a decline in sexual morality. The ‘pop’ singers of Baghdad accompanied their erotic songs on the lute, an instrument resembling the modern guitar. In the second half of the tenth century, as a result, much obscene sexual language came increasingly into use, such as would not have been tolerated in an earlier age.

Several khalifs issued orders banning ‘pop’ singers from the capital, but within a few years they always returned.

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Personally, I found the shoulder pads popular in the 1980's to be profane, or was it obscene?

I wonder if Tipper played the lute for Al?

We'll probably never know, she's not allowed to talk about it under the divorce settlement.

Glubb then goes into a discussion of how women's increasing influence in the culture has been associated with the decline.

While including this part would be a great way to create controversy and have this post go viral by being attacked as misogynistic, that's really not my style.

Again, at this point, the empire is already in its terminal stages and blaming it on womens' increased influence on society is just dumb.

There goes my Pulitzer.

Back to the collapse of the tenth century Arab empire:

At such a moment, it might have been expected that everyone would redouble their efforts to save the country from bankruptcy, but nothing of the kind occurred. Instead, at this moment of declining trade and financial stringency, the people of Baghdad introduced a five-day week.

In 2000, France adopted a 35 hour work week.

I'm not sure if Greece has a work week.

Mandated health insurance for "full time" employees in the US has driven many employers to hold worker's below 30 hours a week.

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Without going into the details of it here, Glubb then describes the Mameluke empire and sums it up with:

The Mameluke government appears to us utterly illogical and fantastic.

Yet this extraordinary political system resulted in an empire which passed through all the normal stages of conquest, commercialism, affluence and decline and which lasted approximately the usual period of time.

He does this to illustrate the point that the form of the government itself doesn't seem to make much difference either.

About ten generations or 250 years seems to be the lifespan of an empire.

The Master Race

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Or "American Exceptionalism, F$!k Yeah!!!"

You were expecting a picture of Hitler or a swastika or something weren't you?

The people of the great nations of the past seem normally to have imagined that their pre-eminence would last for ever.

The Abbasid Khalifs of Baghdad declared that God had appointed them to rule mankind until the day of judgement. Seventy years ago, many people in Britain believed that the empire would endure for ever. Although Hitler failed to achieve his objective, he declared that Germany would rule the world for a thousand years.

There, I threw you a Hitler bone, get it?

The belief that their nation would rule the world forever, naturally encouraged the citizens of the leading nation of any period to attribute their pre-eminence to hereditary virtues. They carried in their blood, they believed, qualities which constituted them a race of supermen, an illusion which inclined them to the employment of cheap foreign labour (or slaves) to perform menial tasks and to engage foreign mercenaries to fight their battles or to sail their ships.

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Today I think they use the term "Private Military Contractor" for the good guys, "Opposition Forces" for the bad guys and maybe "Freedom Fighters" if you want to be ambiguous.

I've lost track, who are you supposed to call a terrorist now?

In any event, I think it would be safe to call them proxies for the most part as opposed to regular military forces.

Just to be fair though, we'll send our own troops there too.

These poorer peoples were only too happy to migrate to the wealthy cities of the empire, and thereby, as we have seen, to adulterate the close-knit, homogeneous character of the conquering race.

The latter unconsciously assumed that they would always be the leaders of mankind, relaxed their energies, and spent an increasing part of their time in leisure, amusement or sport.

Too bad they didn't have CROSSFIT yet.

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In recent years, the idea has spread widely in the West that ‘progress’ will be automatic without effort, that everyone will continue to grow richer and richer and that every year will show a ‘rise in the standard of living’. We have not drawn from history the obvious conclusion that material success is the result of courage, endurance and hard work—a conclusion nevertheless obvious from the history of the meteoric rise of our own ancestors. This self-assurance of its own superiority seems to go hand-in-hand with the luxury resulting from wealth, in undermining the character of the dominant race.

The Wefare State

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There's an interesting contrast here, recently referred to as the Welfare/Warfare State.

The infrastructure crumbles, the government spends several future generations' worth of money on empire building efforts (regardless of how loudly they deny it) and still feels the need to demonstrate its generosity at home.

As long as it retains its status of leadership, the imperial people are glad to be generous, even if slightly condescending. The rights of citizenship are generously bestowed on every race, even those formerly subject, and the equality of mankind is proclaimed.

Just manage to be born on US soil and you get free access to all the perks.

Public schools, healthcare, unemployment...it's all yours for the taking.

So what if 51% of the population is getting benefits.

During the Arab empire of Baghdad:

State assistance to the young and the poor was equally generous. University students received government grants to cover their expenses while they were receiving higher education. The State likewise offered free medical treatment to the poor. The first free public hospital was opened in Baghdad in the reign of Harun al-Rashid (786-809), and under his son, Mamun, free public hospitals sprang up all over the Arab world from Spain to what is now Pakistan.

Really, the very people that a majority of the West believes to be the savages destroying the middle east on their march towards us had free hospitals and universities 1100 years ago?

By all means, let's ensure a free college education for everyone, and if you call within the next 10 minutes, we're going to throw in FREE health insurance too, just pay the additional shipping and handling charges.

And yet again, Glubb points out that these aren't the causes, merely the symptoms.

It may perhaps be incorrect to picture the welfare state as the high-water mark of human attainment. It may merely prove to be one more regular milestone in the lifestory of an ageing and decrepit empire.

The next post will dive into the part that Religion has played in empires (it's probably not going to be what you expect).

If you haven't read the earlier posts, here's a link to The Fate of Empires, An Overview (Part 1)