The Problem of Decadence

by Julius Evola

Julius Evola examines societal decadence, contrasting traditional civilizations rooted in spiritual hierarchy with modern, individualistic societies, arguing that decay arises when spiritual leadership and order collapse.

Anyone who rejects the already largely failed myth of progress and evolution in order to interpret history according to higher values notices a predominance of the negative and comes to understand the problem of decadence. If belief in progress is based on a logical impossibility — since “more” cannot arise from “less,” and the higher cannot emerge from the degenerate — then a similar difficulty seems to arise in explaining negative evolution. How can the higher degenerate at all? How can a given intellectual level be lost?

The solution would not be difficult if one were content with mere analogical conclusions: The healthy can fall ill; the virtuous can succumb to vice. A natural law, of course, ensures that every organism, after birth, development, and reaching a peak, ages, withers, and dies. But this is merely an observation, not an explanation, even if one assumes a complete similarity between both phenomena. How could it be otherwise? After all, we are dealing with civilizations, with political and social organizations, in which human will and freedom play a greater role than in these natural processes.