Decadence Doesn't Sound All That Bad

But sustaining it might be a challenge.

Over the summer, as statues fell and businesses burned across America’s cities, a joke buzzed around my Twitter feed: “Somewhere, an obscure Corsican artillery officer senses an opportunity.” The line captured the fatalism that’s crept into my more reactionary acquaintances: The country is doomed, our democratic order can’t save it, and the best we can …