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Very much enjoyed your essay.

Additional thoughts: When a society passes from liberty to abundance, the consequences of bad behavior are muted. At one time, the brakes on promiscuity included the hazards of venereal disease and out-of-wedlock births, together with probable social opprobrium. Many parents, increasingly beguiled by their newfound prosperity, contented themselves with pointing out these immediate, albeit traditional, dangers with little or no regard for the longer term impacts on society and the souls of their children. Sexual misbehavior became a mere speed bump upon the brave new world of material prosperity. IMO, the decline begins not with the decline in good behavior, but in the decline of the cogency of the reasons for good behavior.

And indeed, advances science and technology greatly reduced the fears of disease and unwanted pregnancy. Moreover, there is indeed "a lot of ruin in a nation," and so, like corporate managers focused only on the next quarter, it seemed as if Progress was turning a handsome profit on increased sexual pleasure. In the 1950's, Hefner's "playboy philosophy" was of a piece with fast cars, mid-century houses overlooking the suburban vistas, and a proper martini. The pursuit of moral novelties seem to fall only on the plus side of the ledger, and so the neophiliacs converge eagerly to all the gold mines of the mind.

And so we move from abundance to complacency.

Fast forward to the 2020's and the longer-term consequences make themselves felt, as apathy quickly gives way to bondage. We seem to be living in a Brave New Orwell (courtesy pf my late friend may he RIP) with citizens at one moment doing the Orgy-Porgy and at another marching with the AntiSex League.

I remember reading somewhere that Aldous Huxley was never satisfied with the "penitente" chapters of Brave New World. But I think it was a brilliant choice. The hero John was caught between a world that denigrated and feared sex, and a world that trivialized it. And so it often is today.

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