Sex Versus Civilization

Civilization is a revolt against nature, and a young one at that.  The majesty of human history over the past five or six thousand years is a drop in the bucket when compared to the oceans of savage millennia coming before.  We are out of the jungle, but the jungle is not out of us.  Our struggle is well documented and symbolized in imagery such as Dionysus versus Apollo; Satan versus God; sense versus sensibility; reptilian brain versus frontal lobe; or below the waistline versus above.

The modern West has enjoyed so much freedom and prosperity that it has forgotten their source, i.e., the latter examples appearing above, which took centuries of observance to bring us the unparalleled wonders of today.  Born into ease, however, the modern Western regards it as birthright and views any lingering displeasure or restraint as unacceptable.  When we consider modern "rights" such as universal healthcare, social security, public schooling, or homogamy, it is rather obvious that the modern Western is a moral idiot and spoiled brat.

Nowhere is this hubris more apparent than in the realm of sex, a primal urge that civilization always has sought to restrain and channel into constructive ends.  But since the 1960s we have told ourselves that sexual restraints are evil and that we must shed them.  The evidence is in, and it has taken only a few short decades for sexual liberty to unravel millennia of progress and gut civil society like a fish.  Rampant divorce, single parenthood, bastardy, disease, and a smoldering hostility between the sexes have left their indelible marks and decimated the family, that once-powerful counterweight to the state (which promotes sexual liberty as a proven method for sowing chaos and destroying political liberty).

Both men and women share blame for this.

The male list of sins is well known (indeed, the media hardly allow a moment to pass without reminding us of them).  His libido unleashed, the modern male can stoop to becoming a Peter Pan who will not commit to a serious relationship, a deadbeat dad who abandons wife and children, a pickup artist ("PUA"), a rapist, a pedophile, or a general thug.  All the misandrist stereotypes we see in movies, television, and commercials have a basis in reality, as stereotypes often do.  

The sin of the unleashed female libido is only one, but paramount -- to reward and reinforce the worst behaviors of men.  What male qualities fan the flames of female passion?  Is it virtue, or vice?  Reliability, or spontaneity? Sobriety, or extravagance?  Character, or personality?  Honesty, or trickery?  Fidelity, or fecundity?  Apollo, or Dionysus?  To ask the questions is to answer them.  While women love to complain about stereotyped men, women also love those same men.  A man defying the stereotypes is viewed as weak and somehow unmanly for choosing the path of Apollo rather than Dionysus, yet it was the Apollonian path that led us out of the jungle and now enables paupers to live as princes.  A man defying the stereotypes also leaves a woman no basis to complain about him, forcing her into the uncomfortable position of looking in the mirror to address her unhappiness. The male qualities that build civilization are "female repellent."

There are exceptions, of course.  Many good men and good women find themselves victims of a tragedy not of their own making, but they are outnumbered and regarded as prudish throwbacks.  It is particularly hazardous that Apollonian men -- who now are labeled as "beta" in an inverted and prehistoric value system -- are checking out of the system in increasing numbers.  No civilization can survive long if these men see no reward from investing themselves in it, and the destruction of marriage as a meaningful and enduring institution has hastened our demise.

Is it possible to reverse course?  Not with the current stock of people born into ease.  Spoiled people do not re-order their worldviews after having them mixed up and set, like concrete, during a bountiful childhood and adolescence.  It will require collapse and a new world of people born into poverty to appreciate the old virtues of modesty, fidelity, dignity, and self-restraint to sustain a healthy society again.  Like the Age of Faith following the collapse of decadent Rome, the age following ours will look back on us with a mixture of wonder and disgust.  We can only hope that the lesson sticks next time.