I have copy of Gibbon’s book. Or rather, a one volume paperback extreme abridgement of the whole, which runs to 4 full length volumes.
If you’re any kind of educated you’ve heard of it. Or at least you’ve heard references to how our civilization is heading down the same path. But you’re probably like me if you’re reading this. No time to read one book, let alone six books on the subject.
Well, you don’t have to. Here’s the skinny on Gibbon, lifted straight from the comments of another blog.
That’s maybe the sixth mark of decline, which Gibbon couldn’t have dreamed up in his wildest nightmares. That most of the so-called educated class would entirely ignore the work he labored 7 years to produce, and that those who could be bothered to pay attention to it would reduce it to five lines.
Glad to be of assistance there, Eddie.
“The five marks of the Roman decaying culture:
Concern with displaying affluence instead of building wealth;
Obsession with sex and perversions of sex;
Art becomes freakish and sensationalistic instead of creative and original;
Widening disparity between very rich and very poor;
Increased demand to live off the state.”
–Edward Gibbon, “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.”
Bubba Twelvepack 