The Sexual Question Part 48

If we sum up the results obtained, we can draw from them a series of conclusions which we will divide into two groups:

NEGATIVE TASKS

_Suppression of the Direct or Indirect Causes of s.e.xual Evils and Abuses, and the Social Vices which Correspond to Them_

The corruption into which a semi-civilization has plunged humanity, by facilitating the means of obtaining satisfaction for its unbridled pa.s.sion for pleasure, is maintained by the latter itself. But in the long run, the unlimited abandonment of the individual to pleasure cannot be in accord with the welfare and progress of society. This is the knotty point. It is necessary for a better social organization to artificially restrain the pa.s.sion for pleasure, at the same time raising the social quality of men; that is to say, their altruism or instinct (social ethics). We can only expect immediately the first of these two objects; but we have seen that it is possible to prepare the second for the future, by neglecting none of the factors of social salvation.

We have become acquainted with the most important roots of s.e.xual degeneration, due to semi-civilization. I use the word "semi-civilization" because our present culture is still very incomplete and has hardly done more than skim over the surface of the ma.s.ses.

Men of higher culture have overcome the maladies of infancy of civilization much better than the uneducated ma.s.ses, and it is precisely this fact which should give us courage and confidence in a future in which a true higher culture will be the appanage of all. The roots of degeneration are either directly or indirectly a.s.sociated with s.e.xual life. It is our duty to declare war of extermination against all of them, and not to cease this contest before reducing them to their natural primitive minimum. The following are the chief evils to be contended against.

=1. The Cult of Money.=--We have recognized the primary sources of degeneration in the historical development of humanity and its s.e.xual life (Chapters VI and X). They consist in the exploitation of man by man, in the desire of possessing riches and power, which become the source of marriage by purchase and by abduction, of prost.i.tution and all the modern requirements by the aid of which is cultivated the pa.s.sion for s.e.xual pleasures, thanks to the power of money.

The priests and disciples of Mammon lie when they say that their G.o.d--the golden calf--is the most powerful stimulus to work and the princ.i.p.al promoter of culture. If we look closer we see the contrary.

Men of genius, thinkers, inventors and artists are urged to work by their hereditary instinct, by true love of the ideal and thirst for knowledge. The disciples of Mammon, on the watch for the discoveries and creations of these men, rob them not only of the fruit of their work, but often of the honors which belong to them. Intellectual robbery is added to pecuniary robbery.

These are the methods of "Mammonism," which must be seen to be appreciated; and we are told that this kind of industry should be the only stimulus to human work and culture! No doubt, the unbridled l.u.s.t for gain urges men to feverish activity; but this kind of zeal, which is nearly always a.s.sociated with the pa.s.sion for pleasure, and only works to obtain the means of satisfying it, is unhealthy. It is necessary for other factors to act in stimulating human work.

Fortunately these forces exist, and can be found, for without work there can be no culture, social progress nor happiness.

The worship of the golden calf, the utilization of acc.u.mulated wealth as a means of exploiting the work of others for individual interest, is therefore the primary and princ.i.p.al root of social degeneration, marriage for money, prost.i.tution and all their corrupt a.s.sociations.

If this root is not torn out, humanity will never succeed in the sanitation of s.e.xual matters. The struggle against the exaggerated modern legal rights of capital, and the abuses which result from it, is therefore one of the most important tasks to be accomplished in order to lead indirectly to the sanitation of s.e.xual intercourse.

=2. The Use of Narcotics.=--The habit of using narcotic poisons, especially alcohol, leads to the physical and moral degeneration of men, a degeneration which not only affects the individuals concerned, but also their germinal cells and consequently their offspring. I have designated this degeneration by the term _blastophthoria_.

Blastophthoria is intimately connected with s.e.xual phenomena, and thanks to it, the individual influence of these poisons may extend to many generations.

A single radical remedy would be easy to apply, if men were not so much the slaves of their habits and prejudices, of capital and the pa.s.sion for pleasure. All narcotic substances, especially distilled and fermented drinks, should be abolished as a means of pleasure and relegated to pharmacy, in which they may still be used as remedies, with special precautions. Alcohol may also be used for industrial purposes.

Science has proved that even the most moderate indulgence in alcohol disturbs the a.s.sociation of ideas, and renders them more superficial, without the subject being aware of it. This slight degree of alcoholic narcosis causes in man a temporary feeling of pleasure and gayety to which he soon becomes accustomed. In this way there is created in him a desire for more, too often with increasing doses.

Most narcotics, especially alcohol (either fermented or distilled), have the peculiarity of exciting the s.e.xual appet.i.te in a b.e.s.t.i.a.l manner, thereby leading to the most absurd and disgusting excesses, although at the same time they weaken the s.e.xual power. The transient pleasure produced by these substances is, therefore, of no real and lasting advantage, while it results in the most terrible individual and social miseries.

Societies for total abstinence from all alcoholic drinks have undertaken a war of extermination against the use of all poisons used for purposes of pleasure, when experience has proved their social danger. Let us hope that they will succeed; then a second fundamental root of degeneration of s.e.xual life will be destroyed.

=3. The Emanc.i.p.ation of Woman.=--A third source of s.e.xual anomalies is due to the inequality of the rights of the two s.e.xes. This can only be attacked by the complete emanc.i.p.ation of women. In no kind of animal is the female an object possessed by the male. Nowhere in nature do we find the slave-law which subordinates one s.e.x to the other. Even among ants, where the male, on account of his great physical inferiority, is very dependent on the workers, the latter do not impose on him any constraint. We have already refuted the argument which is based on the intellectual inferiority of woman.

The emanc.i.p.ation of women is not intended to transform them into men, but simply to give them their human rights, I might even say their natural animal rights. It in no way wishes to impose work on women nor to make them unaccustomed to it. It is as absurd to bring them up as spoilt children as it is cruel to brutalize them as beasts of burden.

It is our duty to give them the independent position in society which corresponds to their normal attributes.

Their s.e.xual role is so important that it gives them the right to the highest social considerations in this domain. I will not repeat what I have said in Chapter XIII, but simply state categorically that, when women have acquired in society rights and duties equal to those of men (in accordance with s.e.xual differences), when they can react freely according to their feminine genius, in a manner as decisive as men, on the destinies of the community, a third fundamental root of present s.e.xual abuses will be suppressed. The complete emanc.i.p.ation of woman thus const.i.tutes our third princ.i.p.al postulate, and in this I am in accord with Westermarck, Secretan and many other eminent persons.

The difference which exists between the two s.e.xes does not give any reasonable excuse to man for monopolizing all social and political rights. The external world and our fellow beings, by whom and for whom we live in body and mind, are the same for woman as for man, so that even when the mentality of one s.e.x is on the average a little higher than that of the other, the first cannot claim the right of refusing the second the liberty of living and acting from the social point of view according to her own genius. The two s.e.xes differ in many respects it is true; on the other hand, all legal and consequently artificial constraint of one by the other has the effect of hindering the free development of both. Each s.e.x has the right to look upon the world and a.s.similate it according to its nature. It can thus develop its personality so that it does not become etiolated and atrophied like a domestic animal. It is only the right of the stronger, cultivated by narrow-minded prejudice, that can deny or misunderstand these facts. The legal restrictions which we impose on woman, on her mentality and her whole life, especially her conjugal life, have nothing in common with the just restrictions which the law should provide against the encroachments of individual egoism, which injure the rights of others or those of society.

=4. Prejudice and Tradition.=--There is still another enemy opposed to reform, which is so deeply rooted in human nature that we can only hope for a slow improvement in the quality of men, by its progressive weakening. I refer to the host of prejudices, traditional customs, mystic superst.i.tions, religious dogmas, fashions, etc. I should require many pages of moral preaching to deal with all the vices which are perpetually created and supported by the wretched tendency of the human mind to sanctify every ancient tradition and consider it as unalterable.

Prejudice, faith in authority, mysticism, etc., with conscious or unconscious hypocrisy, and by the aid of more or less transparent sophisms, place themselves at the service of the basest human pa.s.sions--envy, hatred, vanity, avarice, lewdness, scandal, desire of domination and idleness--and clothe them all with the sacred mantle of ancient customs, the better to sanction their ignominy by relying on the authority of tradition. There is no infamy which has not been justified, glorified or even deified in this way.

I am convinced that it is only by the introduction of the scientific spirit, of an inductive and philosophical manner of thinking, into schools and among the ma.s.ses, that we shall be able to contend efficaciously with the routine and parrot-like repet.i.tions which are rooted in the worship of authoritative doctrines and prejudices based on the sanct.i.ty of what is old.

We have already sufficiently dealt with the superannuated prejudices and customs to be contended with in the s.e.xual domain, and need not return to them. The whole of this category of causes of evil, a category which also plays a great part in all other domains of human life, can only, therefore, be contended with by true science combined with an integral and free education of the character of youth.

I must once again insist on the necessity of a fight to a finish on this ground. It is necessary for this that scientists should from time to time emerge from their sanctums, and let their lights shine in the whirlpool of human society. They must take part in social conflicts and avoid losing touch with what is and always will be human.

The following postulates relate to aberrations and dangers which are more partial or more local.

=5. p.o.r.nography.=--In Chapters V, X and XVIII, I have spoken of p.o.r.nography, and in Chapter XVII, of its great danger to the development of a normal s.e.xual life in youth. Although p.o.r.nography owes much of its origin and development to the greed for gain, it must not be forgotten that, on the other hand, masculine eroticism tends to promote its mercantile interests. It is the duty of society to oppose the p.o.r.nographic products of morbid eroticism, without imposing the least constraint on true art. The s.e.xual appet.i.te of man is on the average rather strong; we may even say that it is much too strong, compared with the social necessities of procreation. It is, therefore, quite superfluous to artificially stimulate it. The struggle against p.o.r.nography must, therefore, be raised to the rank of a postulate.

We must not forget, however, that we shall contend with it much more successfully by fulfilling our first four postulates, and in raising the artistic ideal and feeling in man, than by direct measures of suppression. The latter should be limited to the most coa.r.s.e and corrupt productions of p.o.r.nography.

=6. Politics and s.e.xual Life.=--I need only remind the reader of the encroachments of politics on s.e.xual life, and especially of the abuse of s.e.xual influence in the domain of politics. It is needless to point out the necessity of opposing all useless intermeddling of the State in the s.e.xual life of individuals by the aid of unjustifiable regulations, as well as all intervention in the natural s.e.xual requirements of man (in marriage, etc.), when no individual or social interest is injured. What is much more difficult, is to prevent the pressure of s.e.xual sympathies and antipathies, and especially of amorous pa.s.sions in politics.

=7. Venereal Disease.=--There is need for a great combat with venereal disease and pathological corruptions of the s.e.xual appet.i.te. (Vide Chapters VIII, XIII and XIV.) s.e.xual criminals should be treated conjointly with the pathology of the s.e.xual appet.i.te, and in the same manner; for it is nearly always a question of anomalies of the human brain, which are impossible to improve or eliminate by punishment or other penal measures.

For the present, medical and administrative measures of restriction, undertaken by society against dangerous and degenerate individuals in the s.e.xual domain, are the only possible remedy. We should also endeavor in the future to prevent such individuals from breeding and suppress the causes of blastophthoria, by the aid of our second postulate.

=8. The Conflict of Human Races.=--There remains a last postulate, extremely arduous and serious, which we have already mentioned. How is our Aryan race and its civilization to guard against the danger of being pa.s.sively invaded and exterminated by the alarming fecundity of other human races? One must be blind not to recognize this danger. To estimate it at its proper value, it is not enough to put all "savages"

and "barbarians" into one basket and all "civilized" into the other.

The question is far more complicated than this. Many savage and semi-savage races become rapidly extinct on account of their comparative sterility. Europeans have introduced among them so much alcohol, venereal disease and other plagues, that they promptly perish from want of the power of resistance. This is the case with the Weddas, the Todas, the Redskins of North America, the Australian aboriginees, Malays and many others.

The question presents itself in another aspect with regard to negroes, who are very resistant and extremely prolific, and everywhere adapt themselves to civilized customs. But those who believe that negroes are capable of _acquiring_ a higher civilization without undergoing a phylogenetic cerebral transformation for a hundred thousand years, are Utopians. I cannot here enter into the details of this question. It seems obvious to me, however, that in the already considerable time during which the American negroes have been under the influence of European culture, they ought to have often demonstrated their power of a.s.similating it and of developing it independently, according to their own genius, if their brains were capable of so doing. Instead of this, we find that negroes in the interior of the island of Haiti, formerly civilized by France, then abandoned to themselves, have, with the exception of a few mulattoes, reverted to the most complete barbarism, and have even barbarized the French language and Christianity, with which they had been endowed.

Compare with this the rapidity with which a civilized or civilizable race, depending on its innate energy, a.s.similates our culture with or without Christianity! We need only look at what has happened in j.a.pan during the last thirty years, and what the Christian races of the Balkan countries have been doing after delivery from the yoke of the Turks--for example, the Roumanians, Bulgarians and Greeks.

It is by its fruits that we judge the value of the tree. The j.a.panese are a civilizable and civilized race, and must be treated as such. The negroes, on the contrary, are not so; that is to say, they are only by themselves capable of quite an inferior civilization, and only become adapted to our customs by a superficial veneer of civilization.

Up to what point can the Mongolian, and even the Jewish race, become mixed with our Aryan or Indo-Germanic races, without gradually supplanting them and causing them to disappear? This is a question I am incapable of answering. If it were only a question of the j.a.panese there would be no serious difficulty and the a.s.similation would be beneficial. But the Chinese and some other Mongolian races const.i.tute an imminent danger for the very existence of the white races. These people eat much less than ourselves, are contented with much smaller dwellings, and in spite of this produce twice as many children and do twice as much work. The connection of this with the s.e.xual question is not difficult to understand.

Possibly we might make a compact with the Mongols, and the Chinese in particular, which would allow both races to live on the earth without annihilating each other. I am quite convinced that we have more to fear from their blood and their work than from their arms. Some time ago experts in Far-Eastern questions predicted that the world would end by becoming Chinese.

POSITIVE TASKS

The elimination of the abuses and dangers, pointed out under the heading of negative tasks, would prepare the soil for a healthier and more ideal development of the s.e.xual relations of humanity in the future. These require the prevention of blastophthoric deterioration of germ cells, as well as all pathological degeneration of s.e.xual intercourse. They also require true and natural affection, free from the influences of prejudice and money, and capable of surviving amorous intoxication. Lastly, they require a natural human organization, adapted to the social welfare, the duties of parents toward their children, and the rights they have over them.

=Human Selection.=--This is impossible to attain without recourse to artificial means, which have hitherto been generally condemned, or employed with an unhealthy and corrupt object. I refer to the distinction between satisfaction of the s.e.xual appet.i.te and the procreation of children.

Although it is true that the two things are inseparably connected in plants and animals, it is equally true that the culture and social development of humanity all over the world have given rise to conditions and necessities other than those which formerly existed, conditions which at the present day are so clearly evident that they cannot be disregarded.

The struggle for existence, as it obtains between the different animal species, hardly exists any longer in man. The latter has now to fight with microbes, and other infinitely small things of the same nature.

The combat between man and man, in the form of international warfare, is approaching its end. The wars of the present day, as foolish as they are formidable, are rapidly becoming absurd. We may even hope that the supreme struggle which is impending between the Aryan and Mongolian races will end in peaceful agreement.

Is it, therefore, rational to abandon the quant.i.tative and qualitative regulation of the procreation of children to natural selection--that is to say to brutal chance, disease, famine or infanticide--at a time of human evolution when science contends with the greatest success against accident, disease, infant mortality and famine?

Our strong s.e.xual appet.i.te is no longer in proportion to the exigencies of procreation, nor to the means of providing food for our descendants, nor to the right of the latter to better or even tolerable existence, for the simple reason that the weak, the diseased and the children are no longer eliminated as in former times among primitive races by infanticide, epidemics, wild-beasts, neglect or war (it is now the strong and courageous who are eliminated by the latter). But it is not in our power to modify our instinctive and hereditary s.e.xual appet.i.te, while we have always at hand the necessary means to regulate and improve procreation.

No prejudice, no dogma, no repet.i.tion of old maxims, based on so-called immutable natural laws, can stand against such simple and elementary truths. We like to call "natural laws" what to our limited knowledge appears regular in nature. We formulate a law, and too often make an idol, instead of always making further examinations, in the light of new truths, to see if these so-called laws hold good. But the new truths are there, crying for recognition. The sheet-anchor is in our hands, in the form of measures to prevent or regulate conception.

We must, therefore, have recourse to these measures, with prudence, employing them only at first where they are most necessary, and especially insisting on the procreation of numerous children wherever mental and moral strength is combined with bodily health. In this connection I am strongly opposed to the neo-Malthusians, who simply propose to diminish the number of births indiscriminately, as well as to the religious dogmas, especially Catholic, which, under the fallacious pretext of so-called divine inspiration, would hinder the progress of the social sciences.