The Dying Society that Glorifies Vice
What is degeneracy? What are degenerate acts? How would one define it? One might say that the term degeneracy relates closest to the fact these activities are more prevalent in a community when that community’s higher, more noble, and less hedonistic principles have degenerated. Submission to vice is nothing to be proud of; it is facile and achieves enjoyment without contributing good for others.
A bit like homosexuality and masturbation. Doing it is not bad. It simply isnt good. Where it becomes a problem is when people dismiss the deleterious effects accumulated overtime to the point that it’s not only tolerated, but celebrated and promoted as something inherently good for the individual and for society.
When these acts and vices are abused, they rob good people of time and effort spent on more enriching pursuits. If a culture or society celebrtes these things, they suffer. As the only thing separating us from animals is the learned discipline by our peers and elders that must be re-taught and relearnded every generation. This is the only way that more can be achieved for a community. Only if we do not succumb to every tempetation for gratification at every opportunity. This isn’t a judgement. It’s historical fact.
Vices exist. They emerge completely naturally. Especially in free countries like the US. But to glorify these vices as worthy ideals equal to or greater than abstinence is simply harmful, and thus degenerates a person’s potential to enjoy better things in life reserved solely for human experience. When you encourage someone to enjoy a vice, something they can discover on their own, without encouragement, you are not giving them anything that they couldn’t discover themselves.
No. You’re instead deceiving them through advocating a false premise, the equality of indulgence with abstinence, and by proxy, doing them a disservice and promoting harm to them. Whether you mean to or not, you are hurting them by messing with their mind and values and using peer suggestion to subvert their pre-existing values that took time and discipline to create for their own benefit, and the time and efforts of others that helped that person build them.
This is why “degenerates” have always been a social joke and a punching bag. Once they’ve dragged a society down to the point of corruption that the society can no longer recognize them as degenerates, degeneracy disappears. Because when survival is at stake, degenerate behavior is not rewarded, but punished into non-existence.
These standards should be applied to any and every industry or agenda of vice. To make jokes of them may be comical, but if we’re being honest, it descredits how much pain and suffering it causes the people with these false ideals.
If people truly cared about others, would vice be glorified?
