70's Nostalgia

Ross Douthat has pointed out some people seeming to be pining for the sexual climate of the 1970's.  That was when the sexual revolution was exciting. Everything was new and shocking. Sin is like that. It is basically a lie. You can believe the lie for a while but eventually the truth becomes plain. It reminds me of my kids playing with toys. They make a mess. They don't clean it up. Works great. Then you have to live in a mess. But if life is already a mess then you can't find any joy in more messing. In fact, it is hard to enjoy much of anything. Eventually you might see the wisdom of keeping the house neat and tidy. Or maybe you just pine for the time when you created that first mess and had so much fun.

There is an idea the sexual revolution has gone too far but the solution is no to undo it completely. That the expectation people would remain a virgin until marriage was just to extreme. That somehow we can retain the sacredness of sex without actually expecting self-control. It comes out of a muddled thinking. There is not a clear idea of what is the goal of sexual morality. Is it there just to add some spice to life when you break the rules? Why does it exist? The writers sense something has gone dreadfully wrong in this area. They just can't really analyze what it is.

The problem is they start at the wrong point. They start with sex. It is hard to make sense of why you would want any rules if your focus is on the physical pleasure of sexual stimulation. Where they need to start is not with sex but with procreation. The question people need to ask is not who do I want to have fun with but who do I want to raise a family with. Then the idea of marrying a virgin seems to make more sense.