In 18 BC he approved new legislation that promoted higher fertility for the Patrician class of Rome. He conferred honors upon the fathers but put penalties upon bachelors. He had this to say to them:

mine has been an astonishing experience: for though 1 am always doing every­ thing to promote an increase of population among you and am now about to rebuke you, I grieve that there are a great many of you. . . . We do not spare murderers, you know. . . . Yet, if one were to name over all the worst crimes, the others are as naught in comparison with this one you are now committing . . . for you are committing murder in not begetting in the first place those who ought to be your descendants; you are committing sacrilege in putting an end to the names and honours of your ancestors; and you are guilty of impiety in that you are abolishing your families, . . . overthrowing their rites and their temples. Moreover, you are destroying the State by disobeying its laws, and you are betraying your country by rendering her barren and childless; nay more, you are laying her even with the dust by making her destitute of future inhabitants.

The most striking feature of a declining civilization is the lack of a will to life. Pacifism imo is an example of a civilization lacking this will to life and vigor. A virile civilization is willing to risk life and limb for survival, glory or greater resources. A weak and decadent society is unwilling to exert such effort, they simply lack the will.

In healthy societies, there is a great sorrow at the thought of not being able to further the family line. Of being the last son of an old name. In a dying one, such a specter is treated with apathy and indifference. What does it matter if the family name dies or the nation dies? Who cares?

It's this strange passive nihilism that lies at the core of civilizational ruin. It was evident in late Rome. Even when the barbarians were at the gates and sacking the countryside, the nobles feasted and held orgies inside the city.

A late society is like a suicidal organism. It does not care even for its survival. This is best seen in the case of American conservatives. Even as their country is being torn apart around them and their own existence is being put in the crosshairs, they shrug indifferently and go about their daily lives.

They don't rebel, organize or engage in reprisals. They whine on the internet at most and then go back to watching the Negro felon league, eating Mcdonald's grease, and fishing.

It's this strange passive depression that lies at the heart of the problem.