Love and Liberation
Civilization and Its Discontents:
A Reappraisal
Freud, although he was an innovative thinker, nevertheless concluded that sexual repression is essential for the maintenance of civilized life. This is what most people believe, which is probably why they support repressive practices in society
On this web page we would would like to explore an alternative hypothesis, namely, that no mutually desired expression of sexuality is intrinsically harmful either to individuals or to society.
Eros is the nectar of the gods. When the powerful sexual and quasi-sexual energies of Eros inform and energize at least one caring relationship, we have no need for other mind altering substances. We are in love. Life is worth living. Eros lifts us out of our pettiness, orients us to needs that transcend our own, and gives us strength to endure the inevitable suffering of existence.
We do not recommend that any individual should break the law, which can lead to painful consequences for everybody concerned. At the same time we must ask, with William Blake, why "love sweet love" should be "thought a crime"?
OUR CURRENT EDITORIAL
The Politics of Innocence
by David Bradford
Innocence is the natural state of the mind.
Children are naturally innocent.
Innocence has nothing to do with whether a child is sexually active or inactive, either with himself or with another person (or animal or thing). It has to do with his attitude toward and acceptance of himself, with an absence of a sense of guilt about who he is.
Innocence is doing what comes naturally, and feeling fine about it.
Innocence is not virginity, nor is virginity innocence. Children do not lose their innocence when they have sexual thoughts, or play with themselves, or are sexually active, as long as they feel comfortable about it. The loss of innocence does not derive from sexual contact with another person. Rather the loss of innocence comes with the sense of guilt. The child who feels sex is naughty or dirty is no longer innocent.
We rob children of their innocence by imposing our own sense of guilt on them at a very young age. One slap on the hand or a cross "No!" when the child infant spontaneously puts his hand on his genitals is the beginning of the end of innocence.
Click here to read the rest of the editorital.
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Kit-kats
We bob lightly in each other'sawareness,
Choreographed by faint breezes,
Until he alights,
And snuggles in my lap.
He eats Kit-Kats from my hand.
He licks my stamen fingers
Lapping up the small residue
Of chocolate nectar
With his pink proboscis