As the harmony between Nature and Culture, between Law and Con-
vention, collapses into contradiction, there will be a parallel loss of the
sensitivity of perception required to see the corruption. The result is a
devil’s loop of mutually reinforcing devolution and degeneration. This
is dangerous because, once the downward spiral begins, it becomes
increasingly difficult just to see it, let alone stop it. Witness in the pres-
ent era the loss of excellence in matters of musical culture. Here we
see clearly that the inability to sing or play in tune goes hand in hand
with the preference for louder and louder, and less and less subtle,
sounds. Perhaps it could be said that the penultimate phase of degen-
eration is when we sing out of tune and no longer hear it. The last, is
when we no longer care.