By Deepa Majumdar
If by “revolution,” is meant seismic change, born out of revolt against an unjust order, or as a historical novelty – then “revolution” extends beyond the political. Thus, the scientific revolution is an amoral, apolitical utilitarian phenomenon. Of all normative revolutions, perhaps the most disturbing is the “sexual revolution,” described by Pitirim Sorokin as something “odd.” Revolutions bring sudden changes. What abrupt change has come with the sexual revolution? Modern man’s uncritical descent into the body – a moral decline that has isolated the sexual act from love and friendship, treating it as an end in itself, rather than as a means to an end.
According to European wisdom, the scala natura, or Great Chain of Being is a petrified existential hierarchy – with God at the summit, human persons in the middle, and subhuman life forms below. This implies that although we have animal aspects, we are distinct from and superior to animals. Today, we are so confused about fundamental human nature that we blur the lines between human intelligence and AI, on the one hand – and between human and animal nature, on the other. Given our sentimental love for animals, we conflate ourselves to their level. But just as human intelligence is wholly distinct from AI, so also, human capacities are wholly distinct from those of animals. Unlike animals we are morally culpable, which is why, courts of law apply to us – not to animals. Especially when it comes to sexual conduct, we are entirely distinct from animals. Like animals, we are creatures of passion. But unlike animals, we are capable of self-control – through sublimation of the passions.
At this point in history, we are in a position to assess the sexual revolution – better than intellectuals like Octavio Paz, who, back in 1950, wrote, with touching naïveté – “In a society in which everyone could choose [to engage in bodily romantic love], divorce would become an anachronism or a rarity, like prostitution and promiscuity and adultery.” Compared to mercenary acts of marriage that involve money and merchandize – marriage through romantic love, is morally higher. Although not as effective as religion in its power of sublimating, falling in love sublimates the raw sexual impulse, at least slightly. Nevertheless, romantic love is unreliable as a basis for a stable union like marriage – because it is based on effervescent emotion. Like a drug, romantic love bestows an artificial high that falls with a thud, when love swings to its opposite, which is hatred.
Perhaps the greatest tragedy of modern western civilization is its unthinking descent into the body. One sign of this descent is its binary approach to the human sexual urge – giving us just two options – either expression or repression. Thanks to Mr. Freud and his ilk, western “liberal” youth can be terrified of being sexually incorrect, repressed, or both. Many cannot even imagine the voluntary act of chastity – and nobody is teaching them otherwise. If the Talibanic creed of lustful puritanism is one horrifying extreme – then western lustful hedonism is another.
There is, however, a third option, besides expression and repression. This is self-control, through conscious acts of sublimation that overcome the sexual impulse and other passions. Sublimation is the opposite of repression. Unlike repression, which does not purify the mind, sublimation purifies by turning us upward towards dispassion. What are the means of sublimation? This is where religion becomes indispensable. For, no force on earth is more powerful in its ability to sublimate lust than sincere practice of a worthy religion.
Unlike animals, we humans are capable of the supernal virtue of chastity. Hardly the exclusive prerogative of nuns and monks, this virtue matters also in marriage. For, without a semblance of marital chastity, marriages fall apart due to infidelity and sexual violence. In the immortal words of St. Francis of Assisi – one can get drunk on home-grown wine (I paraphrase) – meaning, one can be carnally immoderate within marriage. Such excess concupiscence can lead, not just to carnal volatility, which belies the very purpose of marriage – which is to hoist us above the crude physical level – but also to marital rape.
Given this background, what is the historical purpose of the sexual revolution? Whence did it arise, where has it led us, and is it coming to an end? First, the Pendulum of History always swings from extreme to extreme. This world has perhaps always swung between the extremes of sexual puritanism and hedonism. Within my lifetime I have witnessed it swing from a most destructive puritanism to a more destructive hedonism. But never before has this Pendulum swung to so great a descent into the body, as we see today. The purpose of this descent, therefore, must exceed mere fulfillment of the requirements of the Pendulum of History.
Has the sexual revolution brought about any good? I can think of at least three related morally worthy purposes to this descent. First, it has leveled the playing ground, degrading all of us to the level of the sexually non-respectable – perhaps as a cosmic punishment for our collective abuse of the latter – especially of the so-called “sex worker” (a euphemism). The west has not invented sexual minorities. They have always existed in non-western societies – but hidden from the puritanical eye. Second (as a result of the first), the sexual revolution has helped us embrace and accept people we once treated as “pariahs” – members of the LGBTQI community and the “sex worker.” Their sufferings are unimaginable. ISIL has punished homosexuality by throwing gay men off building tops, with mobs stoning them to death. I cannot imagine a greater human rights tragedy than that of the “sex worker” in a puritanical religious society. Third, the sexual revolution has given us a mixed message, telling us that sexual conduct within the limits of “consent” is OK – but not sexual misconduct. Infusing at least a modicum of sexual ethics, this message rescues the sexual act from its clandestine nonconsensual character under puritanism. But there is a fourth, highest purpose to the sexual revolution, which I elaborate at the end of this essay.
Clearly, these good aspects do not outweigh the damage done by this revolution. From a wasteland in human relationships, to broken marriages, fatherless children, and predatory conduct that has destroyed civil society – the sexual revolution has wreaked more havoc than good. One sign of the depravity of our times lies in our use of the legal term, “consent.” To demand “consent” for the sexual act, is, at best, legally (not morally) correct – its legal status being no guarantee at all of its moral rectitude. For, “consent” is morally minimal. Two people may consent to mutually destructive sexual acts. Even if legal, can this ever be morally right? Of course not. Thus “consent” alone can never guarantee sexual ethics. Moreover, “consent” is a cold clinical term – very remote from love, affection, responsibility, and duty – all of which cocoon the sexual act in its proper context. For, the only proper place for the sexual act, and for the intense physical intimacy this entails, is deep, abiding friendship, accompanied by mutual responsibilities and duties. Time has not yet vindicated Paz’s words. In the promiscuous world bequeathed by the sexual revolution, adultery has become meaningless, prostitution thrives (despite this revolution), and divorce has become the norm, rather than a rarity.
Hopefully this revolution is winding down – not because we have become more virtuous – but for two practical reasons. First, given the horrific escalation in sexist violence, western women are seeking to emulate the B4 or “Four Nos” radical feminist movement from South Korea – saying “no” to men, marriage, sex, and children. Here we must distinguish true chastity – not just from carnal-chastity in puritanical societies – but also from mere external celibacy, often practiced for morally inferior reasons by Incel men, B4 feminists, and others. For, true chastity is not merely refraining from the sexual act, but redirecting the libido to something higher – through sublimation. Radical feminists and Incel men do not aim at a higher consciousness. Their goal being primarily circumstantial, and at best, political, they do not practice self-control through sublimation. They, therefore, cannot reach true chastity. But a second reason for the fading of the sexual revolution may be the reversal of Roe v Wade in America, which means federal protection of abortion rights has ended, and twelve out of fifty states have banned abortion. This new illegality of abortion may deter unprotected sex, leading perhaps to other forms of involuntary celibacy.
But the greatest impact of the sexual revolution reaches well beyond correcting puritanism, or restoring the status of former sexual “pariahs.” This is the en masse voluntary chastity we can expect as a direct result of the sexual revolution. Having seen a holocaust in human relations and the personal devastation caused by unchecked lust, modern western man has discovered a newfound aspiration and wisdom. There is, in the west, a new yearning for true chastity. We can therefore expect the phoenix of true chastity to rise from the ashes of the sexual revolution. After experiencing what prior puritanical generations could only imagine – a break down in civil society, abandonment of marriage as an anachronism, violence against women and children at historically unprecedented levels, and a decline in ethical standards, intelligence, and mental health, as a direct result of ungoverned lust – western man longs to rise en masse to true chastity.
Let us not forget that this virtue is not restricted just to the sexually respectable. Any human being can attain chastity – whether someone from the LGBTQI community, or the “sex worker,” or anyone else. We may vary greatly at lower levels. But our thirst for self-knowledge leads all of us to yearn for the same universal highest self – whether the image of God in man (per Christianity), or Divinity itself (per Vedanta). Sublimation of the sexual impulse is the means to fulfill this natural urge for self-realization. Any individual or civilization that achieves chastity progresses by leaps and bounds towards a higher, more sublime consciousness. Thus, alongside scientific sex education, all adolescents should also be taught self-control of lust (through sublimation). The Indian tradition has a rich repository of tools to overcome the passions through sublimation – from prayer to the practice of fasting, austerities, etc. In prior generations, Indian women prepared themselves for marriage and motherhood through assiduous discipline – by performing purificatory austerities.
Marriage and parenting have a sexual aspect. But they are never sexual in essence. So, the real choice before us, today, is not that of sexual orientation, but that between love and lust.