SPECTAT THE OR
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Is this the most scandalous, the most depraved, the most immoral epoch in the history of the human race? Consider the London scene. The only noteworthy inno- vation of the theatre has been to persuade American actresses and ex-supermodels to come over here, stumble through their lines, and then take their clothes off. Every night, reporters from the Daily Mail are made to sit up into the small hours watch- ing Channel 5, and then — for the benefit of those Daily Mail readers who did not watch themselves — they detail, in print, the harrowing scenes that are being Pumped into every British household. The Internet is an intercontinental morass of filth. Labour has just allowed gays to have sex on Hampstead Heath, Heston service station and anywhere else they choose, so giving the police more time to bully the motorist.
In a fit of petulance, a man called Ivan Massow has resigned from the Conservative Party; not in protest at its policy on the euro (he supports it); not out of opposition to fox-hunting (he is a master of foxhounds); but because he wants to repeal Section 28, an amendment to a long-forgotten Local Government Act, whose only effect — if it has any at all — is the entirely liberal one of Preventing the state from using taxpayers' money to finance instruction in gay sex in schools. Is this really a serious enough sub- ject for a principled resignation? Never in the last 30 years have politicians droned on SO relentlessly about sexual behaviour. It is as though they had the subject on the brain, and they are not alone. A person of sensitive disposition can hardly walk around London without wish- ing to avert the gaze from advertisements for FCUK clothes, or that one in a deodor- ant factory with lots of suggestive tubing, and the gorgeous female boss who says 'I can offer you the position now, Mr Jones.' With every day that passes, so it would euffi, we become coarser, and our society loses its capacity to feel either guilt or Shame. A pessimist would say that we are suffering from the growing secularisation of our culture. As the Archbishop of Canter- bury has pointed out, the hard teachings of religion are being replaced by the comforts of therapy, whereby you can pay to sit on
someone's sofa, while they tell you that whatever your problems are, they are cer- tainly not your fault, probably something to do with your parents, and that whatever you do, you must not feel bad.
Few now feat the licking tongues of hell- fire. In so far as the Christian God promises to punish us for our transgressions even unto the seventh generation, we may accept, like Freud and the psychotherapists, that problems are indeed passed on down the generations, but we see no divine justice in this; quite the reverse. Like the terrifying characters in the world of Dr Theodore Dalrymple, we are increasingly good at kid- ding ourselves about our culpability. It wasn't me, guy. It was my hormones. It was my upbringing, my conditioning, my genes. That is the case for the prosecution against the modern age; and yet the interesting thing is that, for all our vices, for all our excuse-making, and all the hideous poten- tial corruption of new technology, we are not as bad as our predecessors.
We think it undignified that mothers of four such as Jerry Hall should take their clothes off on stage. But remember Neroni- an Rome, when members of ancient families were compelled by the crazed emperor to join him in theatrical performances, not by invitation, but command. One thinks of the octogenarian Aelia Catella, who was humili- ated by being forced to dance; one thinks of the degradation of the circus, where Nero constructed brothels and taverns on a plat- form in the middle of the lake, where female members of the aristocracy were required, as though common whores, to offer their bodies to the revellers. As Dio says, 'Now a slave would debauch his mistress in the pres- ence of his master, and now a gladiator would debauch a girl of noble family before the eyes of her father.' Even the most wrath- ful tabloid columnist would admit that this makes Channel 5 look rather tame, and Neronian Rome is only one of the low points in the history of human immorality.
For corruption, violence and bawdiness, modern Britain cannot compare with, say, Britain in the 18th century. In fact, looking at the sweep of human existence, which must include the brutish prehistoric period, the present age appears relatively strait- laced, and still capable of fierce vengeance on those of whom it disapproves. The News of the World's Rebekah Wade may be quite wrong-headed in her campaign against pae- dophiles, since it is likely to provoke vio- lence against innocent people, and encour- ages paranoia about the safety of children. But she at least proves the continuing exis- tence of shame as a moral utensil.
Her campaign, and its wide popularity, prove a further point, which may explain why this age is not as decadent as one might expect. Never has Britain been more democratic. Never has the public been more consulted, and been able to express their opinions more freely on moral ques- tions. And those opinions, as Tony Blair has discovered, are broadly conservative.
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