> Haven't most leftists come to see that as a social category "decadence"
> is not very useful in describing capitalist societies?
Depends on the Leftist in question. Leftie litcritters would agree, because "decadence" is measurable only in the context of its antipode, "progress"; the real metric is the category of contradiction itself.
But it's sure useful for describing US society these days. America's clunky, junky military-industrialism just can't compete with the slick Euro/Asiacapitalisms out there. Interestingly, V-games seem much more aware of this social contradiction than our be-bubbled mainstream culture.
-- Dennis