A Nation of Neros

Young American men today are a mixed bag. Speaking generally, our young men are entirely given over to the lusts of their flesh. Pornography is ubiquitous. And yet, these same men play video games and watch movies and read books that contain extraordinally graphic depictions of violence and mayhem. The protagonists in these works are men (or women) who are to be feared indeed. Not willing to discipline their own bodies for some higher purpose, our men live vicariously through these characters who have.

I thought about our young men today when I came across this quote from book 5, section 19 of Augustine's City of God:

But it was Nero Caesar who was the first to reach the summit, and, as it were, the citadel, of this vice; for so great was his luxuiriousnes, that one would have thought there was nothing manly to be dreaded in him, and such his cruelty, that, had not the contrary been known, no one would have thought there was anything effeminate in his character.

Does that not perfectly describe who we are? We watch vampire movies, so we're accustomed to cruelty and vice, but we're also effeminate, lacking the male principle.

We are a nation of little Neros.