USA please read this quote by Oscar Wilde?

Question

"America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between"..................i have not posted this quote just to get up peoples noses but would be interested in any thoughts and serious replies

Answer 1

A Journal of These Days, June 1932-December 1933 -

by Albert Jay Nock - Authors, American - 1934 - 309 pages

A reporter ... is quoted as saying in La Liberte (French newspaper)that "Americans are the only people who have passed directly from barbarism to decadence without knowing civilization. ...

does not seem to be Wilde.

Actually it is a rather weak idea, America was not born without civilization as this country was founded by men, peoples mostly of English heritage, many others so America did not need to re-discover art and literature, it arrived with the French, the English, and others by 1776.

Answer 2

Oscar was quite the character-love it-but what would he say now-my guess is Barbarism-Decadence back to barbarism

Answer 3

Though he may have been deprived of wealth, social mobility & political power, the common man quickly learned to compensate for his impotence in those arenas by channeling his energies instead into the one arena in which he did seem paramount, culture, & into the one form of culture that was truly his own, entertainment. Nothing could have been more democratic than entertainment. Everyone had access to it, the majority ruled in it, & no one's aesthetic judgement of it was deemed better than anyone else's. - Neil Gabler, Life: The Movie, p30