Ad meliora
Well, that was fairly explosive.
I did not expect last week’s Substack entry on (what I believe is and so do others) an incoming counterwave to sex positivity to elicit such a wide range of reactions. From tweets to emails, people expressed their agreement and concerns about general libertine self-indulgence. But there also were, as it naturally happens with a topic so sensitive as public virtue, opponents who claimed—incorrectly but forcefully—that I was being “violent,” “reactionary,” and other incomprehensible, frothing-at-the-mouth calumny that no sane person ever takes seriously.
The topic of cultural and civilizational attitudes toward sex is so complex and packs such a powerful landmine of contradictions stacked alongside consistencies that it is only sensible to approach the issue over a series of observations. There is simply no cogent way to condense the phenomenon into a single post unless, of course, you think catchy tweets where you repeat one self-righteous statement five times in caps lock will get the job done.
For this weekend, I have some quick recommendations related to things I read, things I heard, and things I saw.
My husband and I frequently listen to old school professors on YouTube; the kind that did not balk at the reality that history is a brutal affair. We enjoy listening to lectures on military strategy, religion, civilizational rise and collapse, art, mythology, psychology, and pretty much anything from teachers who look forever bemused at the general state of affairs. Usually these unhappy gnomes have interesting, intelligent things to say.
Certainly not one to resemble a gnome, Dr. Michael Sugrue, professor of history at Ave Maria University, has fast become one of my favorite scholars. In this thoughtfully delivered lecture, an oolong-tea-sipping Dr. Sugrue explains the problem with the Frankfurt School, which is one of the most prevalent social theories at work in culture right now. Dr. Sugrue’s style is less sword-swinging on Twitter (if you know, you know) and more Patrick Deneen style revealing the inherent and comical provincialism of Frankfurt theorists. As a former and rather staunch follower of that style of sense-making, it’s a humbling experience and I recommend it to everyone but especially to that person who firmly believes he or she has figured society out and how it should be governed.
If you’re interested in studying architecture, its effect on people, and how we must live a certain way (as the meme generally goes about modern urban sprawl’s soul-pulverizing impact), I recommend following Wrath of Gnon on Twitter. I have no idea who this man is (the rumor is he’s Japanese but my source could be wrong). His identity is of secondary importance; his ideas on buildings, streets, ceilings, shafts of sunlight through windows, and much more is what makes him first-rate. If Wrath of Gnon ever ran for Minister of Fixing Your Neighborhood, I’d vote for him.
When was the last time you heard a conversation that left you impressed by not only the substance of the speakers but the way they carried and conducted themselves? Their decorum and sense of protocol. I’m not referring to the hackneyed obsession with civility that many lament these days when Democrats and Republicans are on stage; I’m talking about a discussion where observations about cultures, peoples, abilities, tendencies, lifestyles, and more were not a source of controversy and meltdowns but curiosity and inquiry. A conversation where one probes without indenting.
Between 1947 and 1972, the Herald Tribune World Youth Forum, a brainchild of New York Herald Tribune owner Helen Rogers Reid, would schedule a series of discussions between foreign exchange students. Bright minds from South Africa, Italy, Finland, Ghana, Japan, Norway, Pakistan, South Korea, and other countries would sit down and discuss the differences between their lives. I highly doubt we’ll see conversations like this in our time for various reasons but the one that stands out the most to me is that these students (some as young as 14 years old) came from an era where difference between cultures and peoples was understood to be a truth and where one wasn’t incentivized to shriek and scream a litany of -isms anytime someone pointed it out. But even apart from that, these students have a dignity and poise we don’t see anymore. At least not to this degree.Is there something you heard or read that left an impression (either good or bad, it doesn’t really matter) on you recently? Feel free to share in the comment section below, tweet it at me on Twitter, or email it over to mehrkasana at gmail dot com.
I’ll be back with more observations. In the meantime, take good care.
It’s a very hard topic to write about.
When I posted my backlash piece in March, two things happened— everyone wanted me to talk about it & people were heavy with judgment. I must have written about it now a dozen times and have gone on countless podcasts about it.
People are clearly hungry for reactions (not reactionary) to sex positivity.
And the reactions, I think, will and already have spawned a cottage industry. You already see people building careers off it but it seems to have a much different texture than standard issue anti feminism stuff. Complicating this is, of course, that a lot of the messaging is true and *needed.* Nonetheless I fear the grifting bubble that’s inflating.