âThe three great stimulants of a morally decaying culture, as Nietzsche observed in Germany prior to World War II, are artifice, brutality, and innocence, or should I say, the exploitation and corruption of innocence. Artifice increases as a culture declines. Real emotions become rare. Insights are nowhere. The voyeuristic appetite for brutality dominates entertainments - blood sports, sick fascination with criminal violence, âshock and aweâ and all thatâŚâ
âLast night I dreamed I saw the planet flicker Great forests fell like buffalo Everything got sicker And to the bitter end Big business bickered And they call for the three great stimulants Of the exhausted ones Artifice brutality and innocence Artifice and innocence Oh these times, these times Oh these changing times Change in the heart of all mankind Oh these troubled timesâŚâ
