Is the Moon Landing a Mistake?

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After the moon landing we weren't sure what to do for an encore, however glorious it may have been. The settlement of nevada is maybe the last great blow against decadence. But i think you can see las vegas and the eephone are more focused on simulation and entertainment then the steamship and the railway and the space shuttle were. I borrow this concept of the the technological sublime from david nye,. and before him, perry miller, a couple of great american historians. Hi idea that American history is sort of punctuated by these moments of some technological break through that's also a kind of wonder of the world.

For Ross Douthat, decadence isn’t necessarily a moral judgement, but a technical label for a state that societies tend to enter—and one that is perhaps much more normal than the dynamism Americans have come to take for granted. In his new book, he outlines the cultural, economic, political, and demographic trends that threaten to leave us to wallow in a state of civilizational stagnation for years to come, and fuel further discontent and derangement with it.

On his second appearance on Conversations with Tyler, Ross joined Tyler to discuss why he sees Kanye as a force for anti-decadence, the innovative antiquarianism of the late Sir Roger Scruton, the mediocrity of modern architecture, why it’s no coincidence that Michel Houellebecq comes from France, his predictions for the future trajectory of American decadence – and what could throw us off of it, the question of men’s role in modernity, why he feels Christianity must embrace a kind of futurist optimism, what he sees as the influence of the “Thielian ethos” on conservatism, the plausibility of ghosts and alien UFOs, and more.

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Recorded February 25th, 2020 Other ways to connect

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