Words as Sticks and Stones
One of the most obvious aspects of modern public life is the central role that sex plays within it.
Strange New World: How Thinkers and Activists Redefined Identity and Sparked the Sexual Revolution, by Carl R. Trueman
The most private and intimate act has become the defining characteristic and primary category of our identity. There was a time when sex was regarded as something human beings did; now it is to be understood as who human beings are.
Trueman traces this path from Marx to Nietzsche and Wilde. A brief comment on these is necessary. For Nietzsche, modern morality turned appropriate morality on its head. What is appropriate morality? Strength is good; weakness is bad. Just the opposite of the Christian message, no doubt – a message designed such that the weak can demonize and manipulate the strong, according to Nietzsche.
Dwell on that for a moment. In the bastardized form that many Christians practice today, we see that Nietzsche was right in a sense – the weak (more accurately, those on the fringes of society) use Christian morals to demonize those who hold to Christian morals, and many Christians have allowed themselves to be so demonized. But, of course, the Christian message doesn’t end there (and for this, an understanding of natural law ethics is necessary).
Returning to Nietzsche, the moral codes that hinder strong individuals must be shattered. But he did not pursue this via a return to natural law or to seeing God at the top of the hierarchy; instead, he gave us the superman: “a free spirit who transcended the spirit of his own age.”
Which brings Trueman to Oscar Wilde. Wilde is described as the quintessential figure of modernity because the self-expressive individual that Nietzsche envisaged finds it most obvious manifestation in the shattering of tr
Article from LewRockwell
