This also coincided with the technological marvel of indoor plumbing. To bring it home, I would say that Western culture is in a stage of high decadence as we enter the new millennium. Once again, this coincides with an era of technical innovation. Recently, the Mayor of New York threatened to shut down the Brooklyn Museum for exhibiting a depiction of the Virgin Mary, a collage of clippings from porn magazines and elephant dung. Another artist in the same venue displays a eviscerated cow's head complete with maggots.
Excretion follows copious consumption.
Bigger and more lavish bathrooms are always a sign of decadence as the fruits of technology and empire are disseminated ever more rapidly. Once again, I do not mean to say that something is excretive in the pejorative sense, and yet I must observe that whenever shit or rotting flesh are put on display, the scent has been removed. Ubiquitous deodorizing or perfuming is another hallmark of a society in decadence. These correlating cycles of decadence and renaissance, and technological boom and bust, or advance and hiatus at the very least, are not restricted to art and economics, but also appear in other walks of life, such as government. The President's semen stain on a red dress, and its year long prologue, exposition, and denouement on television was voyeurism and the neuotic repetition reminiscent of soap opera.