Hi Robert,
Responses below...
Strchild:
You can always refer to Masters and Johnson on the hard realities of
American sex. Just because most people lie at some point, one can not form
a political party for liars which justifies lying and tries to make it
socially respectable.
No one is trying to create a political party for liars or make it socially respectable. (Why would you do such a thing when you already have the Republicans and Democrats?) Honesty is a very big component of what "The Ethical Slut" is about.
You can not come out and say "I represent the party
that wants people to cheat on their husbands and abandon their wives and
children." You would get nowhere.
No, and I would not say that. Did you get the impression that someone was for this, or is it possible you are projecting your own fears rather than listening to what is being said here?
Uphold morality and freedom, and you will find the liberty for all the
licence you wish. Uphold license and freedom, and you will only end up with
a Brave New World of license and authoritarianism.
Please give me your definitions of "morality" and "license" so that we can be clear on our terms.
Surely Orwell was right to choose Winston as his hero rather than Juila,
because Julia had no deep thoughts about liberty. Hers was liberty below
the waist.
I agree that it's better to desire liberty above *and* below the waist, as Winston did.
Have you ever read that great libertarian book, Brave New World?
Yes, but it was a long time ago. I want to read it again.
It demonstrates convincingly how superficial people who involve themselves
only in physical sensations like sex and drugs are incapable of demanding a
free society. They can't conceive of such abstract concepts as the dignity
of the individual and the value of freedom of speech because they are too
busy porking each other.
Do you really believe that enjoying physical sensations leads to a loss of ability to conceive of abstract concepts? Is this something that people who are *very* happily married, or regularly experience the "rapture" of being moved by the holy spirit in church, should worry about? Or do these pleasures pale beside those afforded by things like drug use and kinky extramarital sex?
If Democrats or Greens legalize vice, they will create Brave New World. If
Libertarians and conservatives legalize vice, they will do so to demonstrate
that responsibility is the natural need of a free society.
Please give me your definition of "vice" also. Do you mean to imply anything negative by the use of this particular term?
Yours in liberty,
<<< Starchild >>>