Decadence is now, ironically, in our modern culture, a form of sentimentality. Decadence is essentially just a nihilistic romanticism. If decadence is the fall of Rome, what will the art be now, if Rome has already fallen? Decadence embodies the worst traits of dark romanticism and fails to accurately face the pains and sorrows of our reality. This creates a shell around the decadent that insulates him from true pain by romanticizing his own pain. Decadence looks backward, toward a nebulous past that was supposedly better than now. We must reject decadence and hedonism if we want our art to be more than a sad visage of our modern times, to finally unearth that much maligned and nearly forgotten force that has kept man alive for centuries, hope.
