Consumer decadence

Decadence in the Nietzschean sense is not the same as Fin de siècle decadence, which means that not all decadences are alike.

The Nietzschean sense of the term had to do will a falling away from a standard of what it might mean to be human, in the best possible sense of the idea.

My view is that a consumerist attitude towards life and towards others is one of the most extreme expressions of decadence that we have seen in our contemporary times.

A consumerist decadent always has some aspect of the pre-Oedipal dynamics going on. It relates to the way that he ‘feeds’. He must be able to assure himself that he can take from you, by making you preoccupied with him and his dependency structure.

In truth, he doesn’t really differentiate too much between you (whom he feeds upon) and his self, which is geared towards getting his needs met. He sees his need to consume and your need to supply him with something to keep consuming to be the key nature of reality, social justice, and indeed, the basis of morality itself. You supply something to feed on: He keeps on feeding.

But the narcissistic relationship isn’t as complete as he imagines it to be. Besides, there are other uses for breasts besides continually giving an advantage to the consumer. So, rant and rave and throw a tantrum as he will — the system will one day no longer cater to him as the all-demanding consumer.