Recently a friend loaned me a copy of a film screened on the BBC awhile back called Decadent Action. The motto that sticks in my mind is featured on a pamphlet the protagonists hand out at a festival: Shop Now, Riot Later.
The very funny film offers an activist model of consumption, based on the premise that pleasure is a valid goal.
I’ll never be dissolute enough to qualify as a true libertine but I am in fact a hedonist. I work hard not just for material security but also to acquire new and novel experiences. Travel, food, friendship, trinkets, adventure – no matter what I have, I always want more.
Even when I was poor, sick, and very young, I had high expectations. I’ll never be the sort of person who accepts mediocrity.
Decadent desires are not inherently wrong. It is possible to lead an indulgent, defiant, and deeply ethical life.