Lecture I: Introduction to the Sexual Revolution

Draft first lecture in the proposed series: "The Sexual Revolution and its Consequences"

This is a draft of my first lecture in the proposed series on “The Sexual Revolution and its Consequences”, to be sponsored by the Ordo Iuris Institute for Legal Culture. Please note that I plan to focus on the political features, more than general cultural ones. The politics is what can be understood precisely and effectively confronted. Chit-chat about “culture” often feels good, but it can go too far and seldom serves a constructive purpose.

In any case, I shall look forward to your comments, questions, criticisms, suggestions…

(NB: The number of proposed lectures has been expaned, and I have modified the general outline below.)

---

I have been asked by my university, the Collegium Intermarium, and by the Ordo Iuris Institute for Legal Culture, both in Warsaw, to put together a public lecture series on the theme, “The Sexual Revolution and its Consequences.” The lectures will be aimed at undergraduate level university students, but they are also intended to be accessible to the general public (without charge, I believe). I plan to focus on the political dimension, which is subject to amelioration, rather than dwelling on “cultural” factors that we cannot readily change.

I am devising the lectures now, and I have decided to post drafts here on Substack in order to get feedback from knowledgable readers. So I will be grateful for your comments, criticisms, suggestions, and so forth, in order to improve the lectures before they are recorded. Please do not hesitate to sound off.

Here is a tentative outline, describing the series as a whole:

General Outline

Course Title: The Sexual Revolution and Its Consequences

Lecturer: Stephen Baskerville

Scope of Lectures:

1. Introduction to the Sexual Revolution

2. Sexual Ideology

3. Highlights of the Sexual Revolution I:

   Contraception, Abortion, Same-Sex Marriage

4. Highlights of the Sexual Revolution II:

   Welfare, Divorce

5. Exporting the Sexual Revolution:

   US Foreign Policy; NATO; European Union

6. Globalizing the Sexual Revolution:

   United Nations, Council of Europe, and Human Rights

7. Effects of the Sexual Revolution

8. Responding to the Sexual Revolution

9. To be determined…

10. The Future of the Sexual Revolution

---

Lesson 1: Introduction to the Sexual Revolution

Source Texts:

● Stephen Baskerville, The New Politics of Sex: The Sexual Revolution, Civil Liberties, and the Growth of Government Power (Angelico, 2017)

Further Readings:

● Stephen Baskerville, Taken Into Custody: The War Against Fathers, Marriage, and the Family (Cumberland House, 2007)

● Gabriele Kuby, The Global Sexual Revolution: Destruction of Freedom in the Name of Freedom (Angelico, 2015)

I: Introduction to the Sexual Revolution

What do we mean by the “Sexual Revolution”?

Some people use this term in a broad and figurative sense, to describe the general liberalization in moral norms about sexuality that reached its peak roughly during the 1960s and which has continued throughout the decades since then. This larger understanding is perfectly legitimate and important.

But I take the term “Sexual Revolution” more literally. I do not consider the word “revolution” merely figurative. The Sexual Revolution is very much a true political revolt and revolution. In these lectures, that political dimension will be our principal focus.

My field of study is politics (“political science”, if you prefer), and I consider the political dimension of the Sexual Revolution the most important. It is driven by a radical political ideology, and from the beginning it has aimed to use political means to change our public life, including government policy, governmental institutions, the law, political parties, pressure groups (“nongovernmental organizations” or “NGOs”), international organizations, and similar institutions that exert direct impact on our civic freedom.

Obviously, the Sexual Revolution has also exerted an enormous impact in that vast realm of life that we generally describe as “culture”. The impact of the Sexual Revolution on our culture is incalculable, and I will describe it when it is relevant to the politics. So we can say that we will prioritize the impact of the Sexual Revolution specifically on our political culture.

Some people prefer to focus on the culture alone or at least primarily. But this creates some problems:

1. First, culture is a large and nebulous concept. It is difficult to define and document. Discussions about “culture” often provide an excuse to engage in enormous amounts of pointless chit-chat: unsupported generalizations, off-the-cuff opinions, “he-said/she-said” gossip, lurid sensationalism, dwelling on things that we already know, compiling impractical wish lists of what we should do if we could wage a magic wand. Social media is full of this, and it consumes vast amounts of time and distracts us from learning or doing anything constructive. I plan to cut through this chatter and concentrate on the important matters. This means focusing on matters that are specific and concrete, that can be researched, documented, debated, and if necessary changed and rectified.

2. Second, focusing on the culture can become an excuse to ignore serious political problems: ranting against the Left or the Right; deploring the immorality of our times; bemoaning the loss of religious faith; criticizing the faults of men or women (or both); complaining about “unfairness”, or “inequality” or “oppression” or “bias”. All these lamentations may be valid, but complaining about them is seldom constructive. We will focus here on the things that are possible to change or remedy. Specifically, we will concentrate particularly on the role of government power, and especially with how it can be abused and rectified.

This does not mean that you will need a degree in political science to understand what I say. I promise to speak in plain English and to treat topics that any literate intelligent adult (including university-level students) can readily understand. I also promise to refrain from offering unsubstantiated opinions of my own, unless they are strongly supported by facts and evidence and serve some larger purpose. But I will point out where I believe that government power is being used improperly and abused.

3. Third, focusing on culture can become a formula for paralysis, an excuse for doing nothing. When addressing social and political problems today, it is common for people to throw up their hands and say that we are helpless to act on them until we “first change the culture”, because “culture is upstream from politics”. These are clichés, and like all cliches they should be treated with scepticism. We can spend our lives trying to “change the culture” and achieve nothing. But a small number can make an immediate difference in the realms of government policy and law.

Concerning the scope of the lectures:

For most people, the Sexual Revolution began – or at least greatly accelerated – during and after the 1960s, and it continues to the present day. That is the period on which we will concentrate. The Revolution emerged with full force at this time, and it is when many of the important changes (not all) took place.

The turbulence of the 1960s was at first dominated by other political issues, and the full political force of the Sexual Revolution only began to emerge late in that decade. Yet in the long run, its impact has lasted longer than issues that seemed more pressing at the time. While protests over the Vietnam War and Civil Rights now belong largely to the realm of history, the Sexual Revolution has only become more potent. In fact, I believe it has gone on to become the most powerful ideological force in our society. No other agenda within radical or “Woke” ideology is remotely as important. Claims of continued racial discrimination or class inequality are not taken seriously today by the most perceptive observers and have become mostly distractions. Arguably they are still made mostly to divert our attention. Sexual ideology, by contrast is the most important ideological innovation of our time, and it continues to transforming our lives in fundamental ways.

Culturally, the major landmarks of this era are well known: Early inklings of what was to come include fashions like bikinis and miniskirts. (Preceding this, Playboy magazine was founded in the 1950s.) The counter-culture reached its apex with the Woodstock festival in 1969, with hippies naked in the mud, practicing “free love” and sensational stage productions like Hair and Oh! Calcutta!, extolling nudity and profanity.

Politically, major controversies concerned legislation and judicial decisions over contraception, abortion, divorce, same-sex marriage, and most recently various manifestations of “transgenderism” have had far-reaching consequences to this day.

Some important social and economic changes can be traced back well before the 1960s: The affluence (some say decadence) of the post-war period. Labor-saving devices gave women more leisure time and public influence. Before that was the widespread employment of women outside the home during World War II. Going back a few decades, industrialization led to the separation of economics from the home and family and the separation of men from the household. One major innovation that we will emphasize is the creation of the welfare state, which devastated low-income families.

All of these helped create the context and set the conditions. But the main catalyst was ideological. Feminist ideology emerged with full force late in the 1960s, and since then it has displaced other leftist agendas and come to dominate the Left on its cutting edge. The National Organization for Women was founded in 1966 and other feminists organizations at about the same time. But earlier feminist movements had been active during World War I and successively agitated for the vote. Going back further, radical feminism emerged in force during the 19th century – marked, for example, by the Seneca Falls conference and Declaration (1848) and before that to publications such as Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), at the time of the French Revolution.

In fact, one might argue that all of modern history (that is, since the close of the Middle Ages) has been moving us on the path to sexual liberation. The shift in authority over the family from the church to the state has taken place over centuries. One precipitating factor is sometimes said to be the Protestant Reformation, though other factors also contributed, including some from the Catholic Church.

~~~

In closing, I want to add that the point of these lectures is to get you to think “outside the box” and outside your “comfort zone”. I never preach to the converted. You should not expect me to tell you things that you already know, to repeat clichés that are already common on these topics, or to confirm you in your existing opinions. The full impact of sexual ideology and the Sexual Revolution is difficult to understand. People – on both sides – who constantly spout opinions, confident that they know everything, are invariably wrong. I have published 4 books on the Sexual Revolution and dozens of articles (including peer-reviewed articles in academic journals and books), and yet every day I discover new things that had not occurred to me previously.

The more I come to understand the Sexual Revolution, the more convinced I become that many people – people who are sympathetic to it and people who are hostile – operate on assumptions and prejudices that make it even more difficult to understand. Even people who advocate in favor of the Sexual Revolution seldom understand the full implications of what they are advocating. Those who oppose it also have preconceived notions, and they seldom understand everything about what they are opposing. In fact, the failure of conservatives in particular to understand sexual ideology and sexual radicalism is a major reason for why it has triumphed almost unopposed over the last half-century.

That said, I hope that people of whatever sympathies will gain understanding from these lectures.

---

If you want to read more analysis that will push you to think “outside the box,” you will find it in my new book, Who Lost America? Why the United States Went "Communist” — and What to Do about It — available from Amazon.

Stephen Baskerville is Professor of Politics at the Collegium Intermarium in Warsaw. His books and recent articles are available at www.StephenBaskerville.com.