Clive Hamilton - Articles
Rated • 1 review • psychology, sexuality, relationships • clivehamilton.net.au
Good is the new bad....title of one of many stimulating essays.
The sexual revolution allowed us to discard oppressive moral codes, but it failed to
deliver on its promise of a world of uninhibited sexual pleasure in which we could find
and express our true desires. Sexual freedom became burdened with expectations it could
never meet. Pursuing sexual freedom as an antidote to boredom or as a means of finding
personal fulfilment was always doomed to fail. For many it became a means of avoiding
emotional intimacy and repudiating the metaphysical meaning of sexual union. The
ideology of sexual freedom did not recognise that, for all of its wonders, sex also has a
powerful dark side, one that often gives rise to feelings of betrayal, regret and emptiness.
I have argued that engaging in early and uninhibited sex was once a sign of rebellion
against an oppressive orthodoxy; now in a sex-soaked society, in which the imagery and
practices of pornography are seeping in to the mainstream, a new orthodoxy has taken
control, imposing a set of expectations almost as oppressive as those it replaced. In this
new environment, power is now to be exercised by resisting those pressures.
Temperance, even abstinence, can be an expression of self-control, of inner freedom.
Today the historic mission is no longer to attack and tear down, but to rebuild a moral
code. In affluent, liberal societies, the task is to understand that freedom cannot be found
in a moral free-for-all, but only in the careful exercise of restraint.
The sexual revolution allowed us to discard oppressive moral codes, but it failed to
deliver on its promise of a world of uninhibited sexual pleasure in which we could find
and express our true desires. Sexual freedom became burdened with expectations it could
never meet. Pursuing sexual freedom as an antidote to boredom or as a means of finding
personal fulfilment was always doomed to fail. For many it became a means of avoiding
emotional intimacy and repudiating the metaphysical meaning of sexual union. The
ideology of sexual freedom did not recognise that, for all of its wonders, sex also has a
powerful dark side, one that often gives rise to feelings of betrayal, regret and emptiness.
I have argued that engaging in early and uninhibited sex was once a sign of rebellion
against an oppressive orthodoxy; now in a sex-soaked society, in which the imagery and
practices of pornography are seeping in to the mainstream, a new orthodoxy has taken
control, imposing a set of expectations almost as oppressive as those it replaced. In this
new environment, power is now to be exercised by resisting those pressures.
Temperance, even abstinence, can be an expression of self-control, of inner freedom.
Today the historic mission is no longer to attack and tear down, but to rebuild a moral
code. In affluent, liberal societies, the task is to understand that freedom cannot be found
in a moral free-for-all, but only in the careful exercise of restraint.
