All advances in one structure imply degradation of some other. The specialization of the human hand has been at the cost of the human foot.
The power to live by his wits has taken from man something of the strength and spryness of his ape-like ancestors. To have one’s food cooked means the reduction of the lower jaw and its muscles. For a bird to trust to its wings means the decline of the strength of its feet.
Reduction of unused parts atrophy is a universal rule in organic development.
But “decline in all parts” is the essential meaning of “degeneration”
Degeneration in Man is the “morbid deviation from the moral type” So far as nerve functions are concerned it is decline in “the accuracy of thought and the veracity of actions.”
“Senility” is second childhood owing to old age. Senility may come prematurely as a result of influences adverse to mental and physical activity.
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Race – degeneration: As the destruction of the unadapted is the chief element of race-progress, so is their survival the chief element in race-decay. Degeneration occurs when weakness mates with weakness; when incentives to individual action are taken away, without reduction in security of life, and when the unfit are sheltered from the consequences of their folly, weakness or perversity.
Such degeneration is encouraged by capitalism.
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“Survival of the fit” and “Revival of the Unfit” Out of students some pass this year, the rest will pass next year. They will be fit to-morrow.
“Charity,” says a French writer, “causes half the suffering she relieves; but she cannot relieve half the suffering she has caused.”
In luxury are found conditions of degeneration. When one has all he wants, there is little incentive to strive for anything more. The sheltered Jife does not favour progress.
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Mental Dyspepsia or mental constipation. Where thought does not go over into action, a sort of mental dyspepsia is produced under the abnormal condition.
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The same man is like a well-made watch—trained to keep correct time under all conditions of temptation, (temperature) pressure, or environment.
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The “mattoid” is full of “vibrancy”; he is affected by all sorts of conditions, external and internal. He is like the watch that will run off the whole twenty-four hours in a minute and not move at all for a day to come.
Ego-mania increases with self-admiration just as drunkenness is the cause of more drunkenness.
Much of the “decadent literature” of the day is the work of men of mediocre abilities who throw themselves into grotesque postures in the hope that they may thereby arrest the fickle attention of the public. It is the effort of mountebanks to catch the people’s eyes.
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Strength begets strength and wisdom leads to wisdom. “There is always room for the man of force and he makes room for many.”