London, a city of empire and order, now finds itself knee-deep in the latest celebrity farce. A model alleges that Kanye West, the infamous rapper and fashion provocateur, choked her. ‘I felt suffocated and scared,’ she says. Her British legal team reviews the case. The story is sordid, predictable, and above all, boring. But it is also a mirror of our times. We are not merely witnessing a celebrity scandal; we are watching the moral collapse of an entire civilisation, a spectacle reminiscent of the fall of Rome itself.
Let us be clear. I do not write to defend Kanye West. The man is a buffoon, a talentless provocateur who mistakes vulgarity for genius. But his alleged crime is less interesting than the cultural context that enables it. We live in an era of intellectual decadence, where the pursuit of fame has replaced the pursuit of truth. The model’s complaint, regardless of its veracity, is a symptom of a society that has abandoned the grand narratives of duty, honour, and restraint. We have traded these for the cheap thrill of the viral moment.
Compare this to the Victorian era. In those days, a gentleman’s reputation was his bond. A man who choked a woman would not face a legal team; he would face a duelling pistol or the social ostracism that was worse than death. The Victorians understood that character mattered more than fame. They grasped that the private sphere was sacred, and that public spectacle was vulgar. Today, we have inverted this. We celebrate the vulgar and mock the sacred. The result is a culture of mutual degradation.
But the legal aspects are also instructive. The model’s team, self-righteous and hungry for publicity, will no doubt pursue this case with vigour. Yet where is the proportion? In a just society, such allegations would be investigated quietly, with a presumption of innocence. But in our circus-like legal system, the accusation itself is a conviction. The media, like a Roman mob howling for blood, demands instant verdicts. Due process becomes a polite fiction.
National identity, too, is at stake. The British legal team in this case is a reminder of our own decline. We once exported laws and justice; now we import celebrity squabbles. The empire that brought the rule of law to the world now debases itself chasing American fame. It is a pathetic transformation.
Some will call me a reactionary, a crank who sees decline in every headline. But they are wrong. I see a pattern. The fall of Rome did not happen with a bang; it happened with a thousand small corruptions. A senator accepting a bribe here, a general ignoring discipline there, and soon the barbarians are at the gates. Our barbarians are not Visigoths; they are reality television, social media, and the endless craving for notoriety.
So what is to be done? Little, I fear. The rot is too deep. But we can at least refuse to participate. We can switch off the screen, ignore the next scandal, and remember that dignity is not a costume. It is a way of life. The model, Kanye, and the legal teams are all actors in a tragedy of our own making. And the curtain is closing.
Will we finally wake up, or shall we continue to choke on the fumes of our own decadence? The question hangs in the air, unanswered and unanswerable.
