What makes a civilization decadent? Economic and technological stagnation, a loss of intellectual and religious purpose, a closing of frontiers, the repetition of cultural forms: these are the signs to look for, and all of them are visible around us today.
We tend to think of decadence as an end-of-empire, Rome-before-the-fall phenomenon. But it can actually be more sustainable than that, and there are a number of reasons—internal and external—to think that our civilization's decadence may turn out to be particularly stable.
What would enable us to transcend and escape our current situation? Several possibilities will be considered: technological breakthroughs, religious revolution, and space travel.