Comments on: decadence.

By: esma

esma — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 12:46:03 +0000

wow debauchette, how prophetic

By: Doctor M

Doctor M — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 21:55:56 +0000

The transaction is almost better than the use.

By: popomo

popomo — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 19:53:22 +0000

It’s been my observation that the “glorification of the commerce” and the derivation of joy “from the transaction itself rather than from the use of product” is by no means a recent development. It seems rather to be precisely what drives, motivates and sustains the very vitality of an accelerated and hyperactive new era in global capitalist exchange, an era in which commerce is driven not merely by glorification of the exchange itself, but also by a perverted speculative madness in which one’s predictive capacities as to the present day’s excess, the future’s fetishistic possibilities becomes the new seat of joy, paradoxically cordoning off that joy from anything but the ability to imagine the possibility of its enjoyment.

Anecdotally, I work in my own form of whoredom to pay my way through school — selling cuisine instead of orgasms, a difference that seems increasingly formal and meaningless anymore — and if one spends enough time charging $600 to AmEx Blacks for Super Tuscans that were never even decanted before being drunk, it seems obvious where the customer derives their pleasure.

By: Boymeat

Boymeat — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 14:45:46 +0000

The world would be a better place if more people felt comfortable and brave enough to be so spontaneous. Now I shall stare at my phone and will such things to be true.

By: Disconnected

Disconnected — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 14:28:41 +0000

I can’t really argue with that since I don’t have any experience of these type of people in the states. However, I would agree with ‘another form of commerce’ rather than ‘an excursion’, but then the whole point of moneyLondon is the glorification of the commerce. Have you been to Selfridges on your latest visit? The signs hanging everywhere say it all: “buy me, use me, throw me away”… Now, I’m not a puritan by any means, but when joy is derived from the transaction itself rather than from the use of product/service itself (be it wine, trips, clothes, etc), it makes me sad and angry at the same time. Like you comment – it’s the drive-thru depravity experience, but then the point of the experience is the experiencing of it but doing it for the sake of being able to talk about it afterwards.?

By: debauchette

debauchette — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 12:32:46 +0000

Ha! Necklace meme.

Disconnect – I think you’re right about the bankers and the retail in London. The decadence doesn’t bear much likeness to libertinage. It’s more of a momentary excursion, or another form of commerce. Though I’d argue it’s much more pronounced in the States where decadence and fast-food culture merge to form some kind of drive-thru depravity one experiences while tapping out a message on a Blackberry. Most of the time.

By: Disconnected

Disconnected — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 09:59:36 +0000

Yes, London is a lovely place for decadence. But I think that the moral decay has to do with the money rather than the whoredom. Don’t know if you agree, but London decadence seems to focus on the act of retail rather than the idea of being a real libertine. Banker cars, banker art, banker clubs… Maybe that’s ubiquotous though…

It is inspiring though, in a dark way. Or at least it has been to me.

By: Peccator

Peccator — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 04:10:15 +0000

Perhaps his necklace-upon-the-necklace was not a move to, um . . . smear . . . a business rival but rather an attempt to create a meme.

As you can tell, I’m deep into filth at the moment.

By: axe

axe — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 17:57:46 +0000

Things to do in 2008:

1:Get out of debt
2:Take a cooking class
3: Work out more often
4:Get a text message from a woman asking me to lick her pussy

Ok as long as #4 happens it will be a good year.

If that’s what’s happening when the sky is falling, I hope it keeps falling.