How desire and pleasure died, and why
Ah, the age when memories of “adult” events are crystal clear, and you, my dear, are fortunate enough to possess such clarity. It is during this juncture that you find yourself pondering what has mercilessly slain the appetites, desires, and pleasures within Western society. And why must you wonder, you ask? Well, if you wish to leave an indelible mark upon the world, you must first contemplate upon whom you shall bestow this mark. Who is the culprit? Whose countenance shall you fracture?
Oh, my curious friend, you yearn to uncover the precise changes that have taken place. What exactly has arrived from the outside? What has silenced a culture as deeply steeped in hedonism as the European one, transforming everything into a saccharine and flavorless broth that offers no pleasure and satisfies no desire? And why, all of a sudden, have words like pleasure, desire, and enjoyment become the talk of the town?
When I read that millennials are no longer having sex, what am I reading? When I read that they are vegans and consume food that provides no satisfaction, what am I reading? When I read that they confine themselves indoors, cutting themselves off from the opportunities to live life, what am I reading? What do the new humans do, how do they occupy their time if, in fact, they deprive themselves of every pleasure?
The repression of pleasure has illustrious precedents, such as that of the medieval Catholic Church. However, the type of repression practiced by the Catholic Church was not aimed at the cessation of pleasure itself, but rather its reorganization, its sublimation. Before you rush to claim that the Catholic Church repressed sexuality, take a moment to behold the sculpture displayed below, proudly standing in the heart of Bologna. It was commissioned by a Cardinal, Donato Cesi.
Ah, as you can see from the photographs, it is not the type of fountain one would expect from a cardinal. Or perhaps it is? Surely, you are aware that Michelangelo's statue of David has been accused of pornography and removed from the art program of an American school. Art without Michelangelo. However, if we delve into the years in which it was sculpted, we quickly discover that they were marked by a strong dominance of Catholic culture and the workings of the Inquisition. So, where is the censorship of sexuality that (typically, Anglo-Saxons and Protestants) accuse the Catholic Church of, claiming to be free from such prudishness? And where, in Protestant and Anglo-Saxon countries, are the scandalous fountains, the libertine works of art that we expect when censorship ceases and freedom begins? Where are they hiding?
Do not exhaust yourself in the search. If there are places where what Protestant culture accused the Catholic Church of doing was truly practiced, those places are Protestant, Anglo-Saxon ones. You will find NOTHING of anything resembling a well-crafted human body statue (heaven forbid, it might evoke inappropriate!), only food so useless thoughts and flavorless that it makes one crave eating the plaster wall. Someone once said, “The sensuality of women and the quality of food make Englishmen great sailors.” And they weren't entirely wrong. For it is precisely in those regions that a noxious, freedom-killing, and most notably, inhuman infection arises. Puritanism. The evil that is infecting continental Europe from the Anglo-Saxon world, rendering pleasure marginal. Puritanism.
Indeed, you can witness it in the constant crusades against pornography, conducted, for instance, by social networks that, on the other hand, do not bother to verify the age of their users or restrict access for children. They have no qualms about allowing hate to thrive on their platforms, but heaven forbid, a glimpse of a nipple. You can praise Hitler, but certainly not a porn star. You can create a group of neo-Nazis, but never one for swinger couples. Heaven forbid. Hatred, yes; pleasure, no. Such is the motto of puritanism. It is the epitome of the puritanical ideology: yes to hate, no to pleasure, the principle that renders mass social networks so dreary and dull.
My ideological representation of puritanism is not as exaggerated as you may think. The Puritans originated in England, were banished and driven out, and sought refuge in the United States, where they became the most fervent proponents of colonization and the brutal extermination of native populations. How does one reconcile this with the Christianity they claim to profess? If it is deemed indecent to show a nipple, why is it deemed acceptable for Puritans to kill local women and children? The answer lies precisely in the two pillars of puritan ideology: “hatred, yes; pleasure, no.” And we must therefore understand why, in a country like the USA, a statue that was considered a work of art by the Church in the Middle Ages is censored, while inexplicable racism and a fetish for weapons and violence are allowed to flourish, surpassing even the Nazi Germany was.
Another characteristic of puritanism is its ability to infect political parties and youth movements. If you're an environmentalist, you are expected to detest good food and opt for consuming insects, weeds, and other exotic forms of culinary unpleasantness. If you examine the recommended diet of environmentalists, you'll find one guiding principle: if it brings pleasure, it must surely harm the environment. Only the “wonderful” food consumed by patients in hospitals seems to be in harmony with nature, or so it appears.
And if you observe feminist movements, heaven forbid anything being sexualized. Homosexual movements, once preaching liberation, are now divided between unattractive lesbians (as if beauty meant nothing to women!) and insipid, unsexy gay men, all wrapped up in a “coolness” that makes you more inclined to engage in intimate encounters with a refrigerator rather than envision a night of passion.
But why hasn't society expelled this festering so? Why hasn't anyone grown tired of this hypocritical mess? Why does no one stand up and declare that we want thrilling movies, delicious food to eat, the desire to go dancing and revel in sensual encounters, and to once again experience pleasure? The answer is simple: puritanism is a system of social control, particularly economic control, as it makes people predictable. And that is no small matter. The problem lies in the fact that if people do not desire sex, do not crave good food, do not wish to possess beautiful things, do not yearn for emotionally stirring and perhaps scandalous art, and do not seek out thrilling movies, how will they spend and invest their time in life? The answer is simple: “I focus on my work.”
Desire, impulses, and the pursuit of pleasure are driving forces. They guide people to make choices, consider priorities, and connect with their irrational and “animal” side. But if everyone rejects this aspect, what remains? What remains is work. Puritanism aims to create a humanity in which people eat poorly, lack excitement, listen to plastic tunes, find no pleasure except in “doing a good job,” and the only explosion of vitality comes in the form of hatred, the prominent ingredient of the online realm. Pornography, however, persists for a reason: two people engage in sexual acts while a million people watch, which helps reduce the search for sexual partners.
This is an effect, stemming from the media, of a useful tool employed by the Anglo-Saxon ruling classes to create a population of slaves who aspire to nothing more than “being the best at work.” If you encounter a puritan, order them a hamburger. It is all they have left in life.
To excel at work and, at worst, to harbor hatred. Because, ultimately, that is puritanism: the death of humanity, the birth of a slave-monster who fears a nipple but has no qualms about hating someone based on the color of their skin, be it white or black.
Puritanism, in modern terms, is simply EVIL.
And we should start fighting it, in whatever form it comes, from veganism to sexual prudery, from environmentalism to feminism, with all the violence, ruthlessness and contempt it deserves.