A Dutch psychologist and criminologist, Chris Rutenfrans, once told me that, in his opinion, there was a single factor underlying much modern social pathology and psychic unease, namely a loss of the power of, or inclination to, self-control. It sounded plausible to me, for certainly it seems that many people feel, or at least claim to feel, that they have little control over what they do. Their behaviour controls them, rather than the other way round; they retain a core of the “real” them, a beautiful inner essence, that is betrayed by psychological forces beyond their control.

Read the whole thing. And, oh, hell, here’s his terrific closing aperçu:

Decadence, after all, is the belief that the undesirable is inevitable.

Confucius, Œc. Vol.

Don’t ask impertinent questions like that jackass Adept Lu.