Decadence (SBS TV)

Decadence: The Meaninglessness of Modern Life
Opening title screen
Genre	Documentary
Presented by	Pria Viswalingam
Country of origin	Australia
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	6
Production
Producer(s)	Pria Viswalingam
Location(s)	Australia
Running time	26 minutes
Release
Original network	SBS
Original release	6 December 2006 – 10 January 2007

Decadence: The Meaninglessness of Modern Life is a six-part television documentary series commissioned by SBS Independent and produced by Fork Films. The series is hosted by Pria Viswalingam, who is best known for his work on the travel show A Fork in the Road. Decadence was originally broadcast on the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) of Australia in 2006 in the form of six, thirty-minute-long episodes (including advertisements). It was re-screened again in 2007 as part of the SBS season on globalisation.

The series examined the decadence and meaninglessness of modern, western life. It is also posed the question: 'If we live in such a great and prosperous world, and we are living longer, better, and healthier than before, why are we so unhappy?' There were interviews with prominent experts and leaders in their fields throughout the series including John Tirman, Avner Offer, Susan Greenfield, Phillip Knightley, Kishore Mahbubani, Noam Chomsky, and John Spong.

Part one examined the growing greed of society and the 1980s ideal that greed is good. It also looked at the growing disparity between rich and poor.

Viswalingam interviewed New South Wales Police Commissioner Ken Moroney about the extent to which many cases of rape have become particularly violent and gruesome, and asked why sex crimes are growing in number in society. The link between violent pornography and sex crimes was also examined in this episode. A medical ethicist Dr. Amin Abboud noted that sex had been trivialized and needed to be placed back into the context of emotional connections and intimacy and that sex should be rediscovered as part of love. In an interview, Orthodox Rabbi Shmuley Boteach stated that modern relationships collapse when people lose interest in the sex and that sex has become the sole measure and importance in a relationship.