Can a Sexual Revolutionary Save the West?

 

To what extent can a sexual revolutionary be counted upon to defend Western civilization, even a sexual revolutionary who believes he is quite conventional?

Douglas Murray is wicked smart. He can write and speak rings around the likes of me. He is witty, droll, dramatic, deadpan. Because of these theatrical attributes, and that he is good on a whole host of conservative issues, Murray is catnip to a plethora of important conservatives.

And now he is out with an excellent new bookThe War on the West, a look at those who want to tear down our past, all that is European, straight, male, and white.

In this new book, he turns to the Culture War on the West by those who want to tear down statues, ruin reputations, paint over art, even dig up or otherwise denigrate plants, yes plants, that are deemed too white and too colonial. Just like math and being on time, plants are now racist. The War on the West is an immensely satisfying book, and he hits every one of the right notes. It is highly recommended.

But one thing is missing, and it is a massive thing, a foundational thing, in defending the West. And it is Mr. Murray’s blind spot.

The great writer/thinker/teacher Michael Uhlmann used to say that every country has a sexual constitution. These are largely unwritten but widely understood. The sexual constitution encompasses what is allowed and what is not allowed. Divorce was a scandal. Adultery was condemned. Unwed mothers got married lickety-split.

Janet Yellen, yes, that one, published a marvelous paper on how shotgun weddings largely disappeared with widespread availability of the contraceptive pill and how this has been a detriment to women. The great project of the Left is to destroy this sexual Constitution. Indeed, all of this has been upended.

Besides divorce, adultery, and much else, the sexual constitution did not allow sodomy. Oh sure, boys lurked around dark places, as they still do, but it was frowned upon. It was even illegal in some places. And though some folks may have smirked at such behavior and looked the other way, it still fell outside what the sexual constitution allowed.

Mr. Murray does not look kindly on those who hold these views that he calls “niche.”

He was not happy that some of us “niche” holders spoke at the National Conservative Conference in Orlando last year. In a subsequent column, he bemoaned that some “thoughtful ex-liberals” might shy away from joining conservative ranks because of the likes of you and me, those who oppose abortion, no-fault divorce, same-sex marriage, and understand the pill has been among the Devil’s most masterful works.

He objects especially that such views may spring from religious belief. He says other than religion, he knows of no principled reason to oppose same-sex marriage. Murray recalled a previous conference in Europe where one of those smelly religious conservatives referred to homosexual couples “as being in a sodomitical relationship.”

Mr. Murray does not like that word. Sodomy is an ugly word for an ugly thing that Mr. Murray writes about downright poetically. I do not know what Mr. Murray does, but I know what he professes, in that he is downright evangelical. In his otherwise clever book The Madness of Crowds, he talks about sodomy as the great mystery that gives straight men a glimpse into something they obsess about, and that is what women feel like when they are penetrated. No kidding.

So blinded is Mr. Murray by his own revolutionary predilections, he thinks the war on the West started roughly on the day Jesse Jackson led a crowd down Palm Drive at Stanford shouting, “hey, hey, oh, oh, western civ has got to go,” which was an effort to eliminate core curriculum of dead white males. This was in 1987.

Mr. Murray does not recognize that the Culture War on the West began a few decades prior. Consider that in 1962 prayer was kicked out of government schools. The Bible was kicked out the next year. Consider that as late as the 1950s, fornication was illegal in at least 38 states. Adultery was illegal in all but five states. Sodomy was illegal in all the states. Even seduction was considered both tort and a crime. Contraception was forbidden in most places.

Each of these laws reflected fundamental aspects of Christian teaching. Striking all this down and much else was a genuine revolution in civilization. And what followed? Contraception was made constitutional, followed by legal abortion, followed by constitutional sodomy, followed by a redefinition of marriage. These were revolutionary moments, whether Mr. Murray sees them that way or not. Indeed, Mr. Murray cheers them. But what followed has been destruction to the West.

French author Olivier Roy calls this the “new faith of the desiring subject”—whatever we desire to do, we have the right and even the obligation to do. And Roy wonders if this may be a current too strong for Christian civilization to resist. The West is Christian civilization.

Douglas Murray may be quite good—he is quite good—on defending Western art and music, Western horticulture, Western history, and all the rest. Murray is good on these tactics. On strategy, he is bad, very bad. On strategy, in fact, whether Murray knows it or not, he is with the enemy of the West.

[Image Credit: Douglas Murray’s Twitter account]

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  1. Charlotte Member
    Charlotte
    @Charlotte

    Stina (View Comment):
    I’m not acceptable because my kids are in public schools

    !!!

    • #31
  2. Rightfromthestart Coolidge
    Rightfromthestart
    @Rightfromthestart

    As others have mentioned the social compact was held together by the concepts of shame, disgrace and honor. These were self enforced. Consider the draft, from 1940 to the mid 60’s men received a letter and reported and almost all did, it would have been disgraceful not to. And then suddenly honor, shame and disgrace had no currency , people bragged about how they avoided the draft and called others suckers ,something unthinkable in the 40s. The people who went to Canada were considered victims. ‘ we make men without chests and expect from them virtue….
    These same men become Baby Daddies shamelessly taking no responsibility for their offspring. 
     

     

    • #32
  3. Western Chauvinist Member
    Western Chauvinist
    @WesternChauvinist

    Charlotte (View Comment):

    Stina (View Comment):
    In other words, religious education existed in schools at the pleasure of their local communities. The laws that banned them abrogated the parents’ and communities’ rights to teach their local children how they saw fit.

    Fair point. I have always envisioned the classroom prayers being led by 21st-century public school teachers, which is horrifying to contemplate.

    I agree with that, but I want to completely dismantle the public education system. It is unsalvageable, if you ask me. Poisonous to our kids’ minds.

    However, one cannot truly be an educated westerner without exposure to the Bible, both Old and New Testament. Hillsdale’s grade 8-12 curriculum teaches from the Bible in Literature and History classes. It’s not forcing any one religion on the students (some of them were even Muslim at my kids’ high school), it’s just exposing citizens to the context in which our civilization developed. 

    • #33
  4. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    Western Chauvinist (View Comment):
    I agree with that, but I want to completely dismantle the public education system. It is unsalvageable, if you ask me. Poisonous to our kids’ minds.

    The Purpose Of Education Is Indoctrination, And To Steal From The Parents, Students, And Taxpayers™

    Atomize The No Value Added Education Edifice™

     

    Western Chauvinist (View Comment):

    However, one cannot truly be an educated westerner without exposure to the Bible, both Old and New Testament. Hillsdale’s grade 8-12 curriculum teaches from the Bible in Literature and History classes. It’s not forcing any one religion on the students (some of them were even Muslim at my kids’ high school), it’s just exposing citizens to the context in which our civilization developed. 

    ANALYSIS: True

    https://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=3&psid=1199

    I often wonder whether we do not rest our hopes too much upon constitutions, upon laws and upon courts. These are false hopes; believe me, these are false hopes. Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it. While it lies there it needs no constitution, no law, no court to save it.

    • #34
  5. Zafar Member
    Zafar
    @Zafar

    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… (View Comment):
    Your statement that we “invent tradition as we go along” is incorrect, I think.  Tradition is precisely the thing that we do not invent.  It is the thing that we inherit from our forefathers.  Tradition certainly developed in the past, for a variety of reasons, including religious revelation and cultural adaptation.

    And we drop stuff that no longer works, like getting married at 14.  So there’s an element of judgement and choice regarding what we decide is tradition (to be adhered to) and what is just the past.

    • #35
  6. Western Chauvinist Member
    Western Chauvinist
    @WesternChauvinist

    Zafar (View Comment):
    And we drop stuff that no longer works, like getting married at 14. 

    I would argue that waiting to marry until late 20’s early 30’s on average has been a major setback for our civilization. The immaturity attendant with our affluence and privileged, irresponsible young people could very well be the end of us. I repeat, third world people aren’t arguing over their preferred pronouns. Ridiculous. We are an unserious society and it’s only getting worse because people wait to take on adult responsibilities, like marriage and children.

    • #36
  7. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    Western Chauvinist (View Comment):
    We are an unserious society and it’s only getting worse because people wait to take on adult responsibilities, like marriage and children.

    I like how they don’t adjust Social Security and Medicare for this. Death panels and inflation are inevitable. Really genius system we have. 

    • #37
  8. Marjorie Reynolds Coolidge
    Marjorie Reynolds
    @MarjorieReynolds

    I’m a big fan of Douglas Murray’s books  while acknowledging we probably don’t hold the same views on several things, including the topic I find most important which is abortion. I don’t know what he might have explicitly said on the subject, but I believe him to be capable of a discussion about issues in good faith which is enough for me. It’s not necessary to always agree. 
    My one criticism of his latest book is that it feels a little repetitive, and I’m disappointed he’s moved to New York when the same crap he’s concerned about is happening this side of the Atlantic, which he acknowledges. 

    • #38
  9. Zafar Member
    Zafar
    @Zafar

    Western Chauvinist (View Comment):

    Zafar (View Comment):
    And we drop stuff that no longer works, like getting married at 14.

    I would argue that waiting to marry until late 20’s early 30’s on average has been a major setback for our civilization. The immaturity attendant with our affluence and privileged, irresponsible young people could very well be the end of us. I repeat, third world people aren’t arguing over their preferred pronouns.

    Of possible relevance:

    The Supreme Court of India has ruled [in 2014] that transgender persons have a right to be legally recognised according to their self-identified gender, including a third gender. Failure to provide such legal recognition amounts to a breach of the right to equality before the law, non-discrimination on the basis of sex and the right to life and liberty with dignity.

    So there’s that.  Some more from culture trip.

    Ridiculous. We are an unserious society and it’s only getting worse because people wait to take on adult responsibilities, like marriage and children.

    The extension of carefree years is a function of increased prosperity.  In poor countries children start working at a very young age. imho this doesn’t make those societies more serious, just more grim.

    • #39
  10. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    Zafar (View Comment):

    Ridiculous. We are an unserious society and it’s only getting worse because people wait to take on adult responsibilities, like marriage and children.

    The extension of carefree years is a function of increased prosperity. 

    Two things are going to happen. As I mentioned above, the unfunded liabilities are going to create both inflation and death panels. We have a system that demands that debt be created constantly. They will print money and lower interest rates to keep producing the debt that needs bodies to pay for it. On top of that, even if you didn’t do that 2/3 of GDP is population growth. 

    This can only be supported with procreating W-2 slaves. Congress should have made all kinds of adjustments in the mid 90s. Instead, Greenspan started blowing bubbles. 

     

    • #40
  11. Cassandro Coolidge
    Cassandro
    @Flicker

    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… (View Comment):

    Cassandro (View Comment):
    We are now seeing the effects in all these areas of a major effort to change the nature of the United States from one culture to another. I won’t recite all the bizarre changes here again, so many have already cataloged them, but the choice today is between a culture of woke, socialist, pagan, “personal truth”, anything goes, and pervasive repression, and a culture of Judeo-Christian morality, individual autonomy, right to ownership, religious freedom, and tempered liberty (or “controlled freedom”).

    Christian morality. Not Judeo-Christian. They are not the same thing.

    As an example, polling indicates that Jews are the most pro-abortion group in the United States. Here is a Jerusalem Post article summarizing the polling (from Pew), and reporting the widespread Jewish response to the leak of the draft opinion in Dobbs, which was to support Roe.

    Edited to add: This holds for homosexuality too. This Pew poll shows that Jews are third in their acceptance of homosexuality, behind Buddhists and the religious “nones.” According to this poll, American Jews think that homosexuality should be accepted, 81%-16%. If you’re a Christian conservative, the Jews are not your allies. They are among your worst . . . let’s say adversaries.

    Obviously, this does not apply to each and every individual Jew. There are some rare exceptions. I say “rare” because Jewish support for abortion, 83%-15% per Pew, is even more lopsided than for homosexuality.

    I disagree.  I was surprised when I found that much, even the fundamentals, of US law are based on Jewish Law.

    • #41
  12. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    Western Chauvinist (View Comment):

    Zafar (View Comment):
    And we drop stuff that no longer works, like getting married at 14.

    I would argue that waiting to marry until late 20’s early 30’s on average has been a major setback for our civilization. The immaturity attendant with our affluence and privileged, irresponsible young people could very well be the end of us. I repeat, third world people aren’t arguing over their preferred pronouns. Ridiculous. We are an unserious society and it’s only getting worse because people wait to take on adult responsibilities, like marriage and children.

    Plus 14 year olds were better educated back then. My grandfather had his teaching certificate before he was 16.

    • #42
  13. Zafar Member
    Zafar
    @Zafar

    RufusRJones (View Comment):

    Zafar (View Comment):

    Ridiculous. We are an unserious society and it’s only getting worse because people wait to take on adult responsibilities, like marriage and children.

    The extension of carefree years is a function of increased prosperity.

    Two things are going to happen. As I mentioned above, the unfunded liabilities are going to create both inflation and death panels. We have a system that demands that debt be created constantly. They will print money and lower interest rates to keep producing the debt that needs bodies to pay for it. On top of that, even if you didn’t do that 2/3 of GDP is population growth.

    This can only be supported with procreating W-2 slaves. Congress should have made all kinds of adjustments in the mid 90s. Instead, Greenspan started blowing bubbles.

    And that would be a serious discussion.

    This has been niggling at me a bit.  I agree that the West has become unserious – but I’d say that a prime illustration of this is that people spend so much time arguing about pronouns (pro and con) and not enough time discussing why our prosperity is being hollowed out by a frankly unpayable debt.  Or rather, a debt that there is no intention to pay.  Why are we wasting time worrying about other people’s genders when this basic economic issue is going to affect us all, sooner or later?

    Edited to add:

    Are there any ‘serious’ cultures or countries when it comes to addressing issues of substance in the national conversation as opposed to rubbish?  Or do we all have our pronouns equivalent subject which engages our attention and keeps it away from the substantive issues?  That’s certainly the case with my birth country, India, but I’d be happy to have a serious country/society pointed out to me.

    • #43
  14. Cassandro Coolidge
    Cassandro
    @Flicker

    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… (View Comment):

    OmegaPaladin (View Comment):

    Jimmy Carter (View Comment):

    OmegaPaladin (View Comment):
    If it was not for tolerance, there is no way the USA would have formed. The Founding Fathers disagreed greatly. Hell, this has been part of our country for a long time – we used to be able to put aside differences in politics, religion, and private behavior aside to get along and enjoy life.

    Alexander Hamilton unavailable to comment.

    Aaron Burr put a bullet in his political career there along with Hamilton.

    @ arizonapatriot

    I am a moderator. That includes the ability to edit and delete posts. I don’t use it for political vendettas or to be religious police.

    I honestly don’t know if most people would be on board for locking up Davin Rubin or Richard Grinnell for sexual immorality. I also worry the Left might use similar laws against us.

    I think that most people would not be on board with anti-sodomy laws at this time. I’m undecided myself. I was using this as an example of an enforcement mechanism that was not a mob storming someone’s house.

    I’ve always heard this argument against anti-sodomy laws presented as two men in the privacy of one’s bedroom.  But this ignores homosexual bathhouses and massage parlors and such, which characteristically is where communicable diseases spread from.

    Enforcement, if there were such a law, wouldn’t at all have to mean breaching privacy of the home.

    • #44
  15. Zafar Member
    Zafar
    @Zafar

    Cassandro (View Comment):

    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… (View Comment):

    OmegaPaladin (View Comment):

    Jimmy Carter (View Comment):

    OmegaPaladin (View Comment):
    If it was not for tolerance, there is no way the USA would have formed. The Founding Fathers disagreed greatly. Hell, this has been part of our country for a long time – we used to be able to put aside differences in politics, religion, and private behavior aside to get along and enjoy life.

    Alexander Hamilton unavailable to comment.

    Aaron Burr put a bullet in his political career there along with Hamilton.

    @ arizonapatriot

    I am a moderator. That includes the ability to edit and delete posts. I don’t use it for political vendettas or to be religious police.

    I honestly don’t know if most people would be on board for locking up Davin Rubin or Richard Grinnell for sexual immorality. I also worry the Left might use similar laws against us.

    I think that most people would not be on board with anti-sodomy laws at this time. I’m undecided myself. I was using this as an example of an enforcement mechanism that was not a mob storming someone’s house.

    I’ve always heard this argument against anti-sodomy laws presented as two men in the privacy of one’s bedroom. But this ignores homosexual bathhouses and massage parlors and such, which characteristically is where communicable diseases spread from.

    Enforcement, if there were such a law, wouldn’t at all have to mean breaching privacy of the home.

    The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice stands ready to do its duty to the nation.

    On our list this week: male homosexuals, meat eaters and anti-vaxxers.

    • #45
  16. Cassandro Coolidge
    Cassandro
    @Flicker

    Zafar (View Comment):

    Cassandro (View Comment):

    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… (View Comment):

    OmegaPaladin (View Comment):

    Jimmy Carter (View Comment):

    OmegaPaladin (View Comment):
    If it was not for tolerance, there is no way the USA would have formed. The Founding Fathers disagreed greatly. Hell, this has been part of our country for a long time – we used to be able to put aside differences in politics, religion, and private behavior aside to get along and enjoy life.

    Alexander Hamilton unavailable to comment.

    Aaron Burr put a bullet in his political career there along with Hamilton.

    @ arizonapatriot

    I am a moderator. That includes the ability to edit and delete posts. I don’t use it for political vendettas or to be religious police.

    I honestly don’t know if most people would be on board for locking up Davin Rubin or Richard Grinnell for sexual immorality. I also worry the Left might use similar laws against us.

    I think that most people would not be on board with anti-sodomy laws at this time. I’m undecided myself. I was using this as an example of an enforcement mechanism that was not a mob storming someone’s house.

    I’ve always heard this argument against anti-sodomy laws presented as two men in the privacy of one’s bedroom. But this ignores homosexual bathhouses and massage parlors and such, which characteristically is where communicable diseases spread from.

    Enforcement, if there were such a law, wouldn’t at all have to mean breaching privacy of the home.

    The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice stands ready to do its duty to the nation.

    On our list this week: male homosexuals, meat eaters and anti-vaxxers.

    I’m surprised that you take concern about male homosexuals, meat-eaters, and anti-“vaxxers”.  But you are living in Australia so don’t worry, it won’t affect you.  Nonetheless, there really are questions reemerging about how to deal with sexualization and sexual activity and militant homosexuals proselytizing the young in the the US.

    Or were you just using hyperbole and sarcasm again.

    • #46
  17. Zafar Member
    Zafar
    @Zafar

    Cassandro (View Comment):

    The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice stands ready to do its duty to the nation.

    On our list this week: male homosexuals, meat eaters and anti-vaxxers.

    I’m surprised that you take concern about male homosexuals, meat-eaters, and anti-“vaxxers”.  But you are living in Australia so don’t worry, it won’t affect you.  Nonetheless, there really are questions reemerging about how to deal with sexualization and sexual activity and militant homosexuals proselytizing the young in the the US.

    Or were you just using hyperbole and sarcasm again.

    I would never!

    And the Comission doesn’t select its own targets, it implements public policy.

    And okay – you can rebrand us as The Eyes or whatever you want – but at the end of the day how else are you going to police this kind of stuff when the majority of people don’t agree with you?  If you want to do this thing you need us dude.

    • #47
  18. The Cloaked Gaijin Member
    The Cloaked Gaijin
    @TheCloakedGaijin

    Charlotte (View Comment):

    This is of course not your main point, but I have always wondered why on earth anyone would be in favor of government schools requiring and enforcing a version of religion. It gives me the willies, and I’m not even religious.

    Before and after the 1960s?  What was the…

    crime rate
    murder rate
    suicide rate
    divorce rate
    illegal drug use rate
    births outside-of-marriage rate, etc., etc., etc.

    Perhaps too much religion to the exclusion of other topics can be bad, but can too much morality really be a problem that often in a free country when people are free.

    • #48
  19. Charlotte Member
    Charlotte
    @Charlotte

    The Cloaked Gaijin (View Comment):
    Perhaps too much religion to the exclusion of other topics can be bad, but can too much morality really be a problem that often in a free country when people are free.

    I’m not at all convinced that a public school teacher leading a government-approved prayer increases either the amount of religion or the amount of morality in the world. 

    • #49
  20. Stina Inactive
    Stina
    @CM

    The thing about public schools is you are learning the ethic of your culture as a substitution for learning it with your parents. Even if you aren’t a believer, learning about the Jewish faith in Israel and Islam in Iran and Christianity in western schools would have given people a foundation to relate to their culture and heritage. By taking all of that out of schools, it was just replaced by something attempting to radically transform us from what we were to something new. What would you rather have taught in schools? Christianity or gender theory and CRT?

    They are competing worldviews. Taking one worldview out of the schools just left us wide open to another worldview.

    • #50
  21. Western Chauvinist Member
    Western Chauvinist
    @WesternChauvinist

    Stina (View Comment):
    They are competing worldviews. Taking one worldview out of the schools just left us wide open to another worldview.

    Yes, it was a hostile move by the Court to the underpinnings of our civilization — formerly known as “Christendom.” But, we’re way past that now. Public schools are indoctrination day camps, and they’re not indoctrinating into any mainstream religion other than neo-Marxist, secular “humanist” (sneer quotes required for such an anti-human, anti-human nature ideology), pro-regressive, neo-paganism.  Poison. Save the children. Get them out!

    • #51
  22. Charlotte Member
    Charlotte
    @Charlotte

    Stina (View Comment):

    The thing about public schools is you are learning the ethic of your culture as a substitution for learning it with your parents. Even if you aren’t a believer, learning about the Jewish faith in Israel and Islam in Iran and Christianity in western schools would have given people a foundation to relate to their culture and heritage. By taking all of that out of schools, it was just replaced by something attempting to radically transform us from what we were to something new. What would you rather have taught in schools? Christianity or gender theory and CRT?

    They are competing worldviews. Taking one worldview out of the schools just left us wide open to another worldview.

    All very solid points. Thanks.

    • #52
  23. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

     

     

     

    • #53
  24. Stina Inactive
    Stina
    @CM

    RufusRJones (View Comment):

     

     

     

    Charzarding??? My kid was upset when he realized the double entendre in “don’t waste diamonds on a hoe.”

    He would be traumatized by this and refuse to have anything to do with his favorite Pokémon after this kind of discussion.

    • #54
  25. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    Stina (View Comment):

    RufusRJones (View Comment):

     

     

     

     

    Charzarding??? My kid was upset when he realized the double entendre in “don’t waste diamonds on a hoe.”

    He would be traumatized by this and refuse to have anything to do with his favorite Pokémon after this kind of discussion.

    You couldn’t put that curriculum in fiction. 

    Why do they have to talk about anything psychological or political? 

    The Minnesota Democrats are increasingly getting better at getting “full-service schools” going. They hire a whole bunch of extra social workers and psychologists etc. to make up for the failure of the families.

    So if the family fails they get more jobs.

    You know they are all going to be communist brain washers.

    Then they act like it’s a win if they actually do this. There is no sunlight on any of it as far as I’m concerned. If you have to do that it’s like an F minus failure on other policies.

    I recently learned that the federal government spends $30 million on full service schools annually. I don’t know what it goes to.

     

    • #55
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