by Rick Bradford, TCW
In the first part of this essay Rick Bradford examined the relationship between the collapse of sexual mores and cultural decline. In this second of our four-part series he examines further historical evidence of possible correlation.
BEFORE returning to that question, let’s look at some further historical evidence for the claimed correlation.
Consider Sir John Glubb’s The Fate of Empires and the Search for Survival, 1978. ‘The life histories of great states are amazingly similar’, opined Glubb. His thesis is that the rise, the chief characteristics and the final demise of a culture follow broadly similar patterns repeatedly over history. Contrary to Popper, but in agreement with Spengler, Toynbee and Unwin, Glubb sees history as a great teacher.
The stages of the rise and fall of great nations Glubb identifies as being ‘the Age of Pioneers, the Age of Conquests, the Age of Commerce, the Age of Affluence, the Age of Intellect and finally the Age of Decadence’.
Decadence is marked by pessimism, materialism, frivolity, an influx of foreigners, the welfare state and a weakening of religion. Sound familiar?
Glubb noted that the emancipation of women and the decline of sexual morality were symptoms of the decadent stage and the incipient collapse of the culture, but he did not claim the connection to be causal.
In the context of the collapse of the Arab/Muslim Empire of the 8th and 9th centuries, Glubb noted: ‘The works of the contemporary historians of Baghdad in the early 10th 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 . . . The historians commented bitterly on the extraordinary influence acquired by popular singers over young people, resulting in a decline in sexual morality . . . In the second half of the 10th century, as a result, much obscene sexual language came increasingly into use, such as would not have been tolerated in an earlier age.’