Resist the Great Urge Downward

Some years ago a writer coined the term "The Great Urge Downward." Your faithful correspondent understands this term to mean the natural tendency of civilizations, once they have established themselves. to resort to human nature and decay and not to aspire. To build a civilization takes work. To maintain a civilization takes work. To allow a civilization to decay and fall is the easiest thing in the world. All one has to do is become lazy and do nothing. One doesn't have to actively become decadent. One only has to take the attitude that one's culture is no better than any other.
The American example would be the infusion, in fact, infection, of rap and hip-hop music as an all too common type of music and culture in American life.
This writer, while shopping at the local Wal-Mart, heard, over the store's public music system, a hip-hop song addressing the glories of oral sex. Wal-Mart likes to portray itself as an all-American family friendly establishment, but apparently the company feels that songs about "blow-jobs" are proper listening for children. At one time Wal-Mart would not sell "gangsta rap" because it was too foul. Now they not only sell it but play similar nonsense over their public address system.
Wal-Mart is a microcosm of the nation as a whole. It has gotten lazy in the pursuit of pleasure and money. The "proper" attitude today seems to sell one's birthright for a mass of pottage. It's all about comfort and money and not offending the offensive.
At one time myths were used to reinforce the values of one's culture. One's culture was considered keeping. Cultures aspired upward and sacrificed to maintain an ethos and culture that was considered better than others. Myths and literature were used to drum the idea into the citizen. Myths and literature showed the aspiration toward the better. Now we have literature and music that celebrate the base and the foul.
There was a time when the private detective, even in the early noir novels, saw the P.I,. as a knight errant righting wrongs. Now the P.I. and cop is a corrupt, adulterous, drunken and depressed whiner who, instead of fighting against the destruction of his culture, watches passively the corruption of his world.
Leo Grin addresses this matter in a different, and better written way:
Big Hollywood » Blog Archive » The Bankrupt Nihilism of Our Fallen Fantasists