Something sacred is decaying

Honor must have meaning. 

Honor defends the sacred. 

When the culture has a flaw in its system of honor, when the code of honor becomes suspect, it is because something sacred in the culture is decaying. It is not the honor that is decadent but a sense of that for which the culture has erected a code of honor to defend which is in decline. 

A society in decline is a society in which what is sacred to that society is evaporating and becoming meaningless. Words like sacred, glorious, sacrifice, in vain, hallowed, courage, honor – when they are over-used or used by cowards parading as leaders or to paper over a stupid national enterprise that is meaningless whether or not it is won or lost, these words become emblems of a culture in decline, a culture deserving of scorn. 

When the code of honor of a culture supports a trust that was held as sacred but that is no longer vibrant, the code of honor in such a society shifts from the powerful to the powerless. Cultures in decline glorify their lack of power, not their exercise of it. So it was in the case with the Jews, the Christians and now the Muslims. The religions survive, and they preserve some sacred object, even when their adherents have lost the impulse of history and the power that goes with it, but the religions lose their sense of honor. Honor goes not to the defender of the established order who did his duty upholding the values of that order; honor goes rather to the victims of that order who defended it to no avail at a loss of their interests, if not their virtue.