Sex and Sociability
Humanity has conspired among itself to erect barriers which protect us from the animal. To separate us from nature, to which we actually belong. For this reason the base will of man, exemplified in the appetites, is at odds with the intellect in ‘civilized’ times. The armaments of this war have escalated throughout history. Society employing subversive and powerful social moralities which manifest in diverse forms such as executions, prisons, schools and table manners. Whereas, the will has hijacked the intellect at times to introduce the temptations of superstimuli which revert man back into immediate and consuming animal: calorific food, cheap consumer goods and pornography.
“Just as man is simultaneously impetuous and dark impulse of willing (indicated by the pole of the genitals as its focal point), and eternal, free, serene subject of pure knowing (indicated by the pole of the brain)”1
The human being is a bi-polar system. Although this puts man at odds with himself, which gives rise to all manner of psychological troubles, it ironically puts him in a sort of balance. Neither of these “poles” being allowed to completely dominate, lest he become either beast or autistic automaton.
It is a fact of anthropomorphic life on this planet that the cold is associated with scarcity and intellect and that warmth is associated with abundance and impulse. In correspondence, “the need to guard against the winter already makes men more thoughtful” just as the plenty of summer allows men to plant more seeds.2
The conflict within life is present even in the non-subjective physiological facts of the body’s operation: “When scientists jacked up pair-bonding animals on amphetamine, the naturally monogamous animals no longer formed a preference for one partner”. 3This finding tracks with what is known of the callous sexual habits of cocaine and methamphetamine users. Nature always wants to fuck and the induction of base chemical processes in the brain and body allows her to take over, allows man to temporarily forget his intellect and ‘de-evolve’ in order to surrender to the mechanisms that got us here. Novelty is “evolution’s way of making sure no female goes unfertilized”.4 This mechanism also explains the value of the human female in contrast to the disposability of human males in most social contexts, in her will nature hungers for the use of every woman and only needs the product of a few men.
Of course, the conspiracy of technology and social contexts has hijacked this process also to sublimate the desires of nature to the intellect of human relationships. The sexual technologies of roleplay and cosplay allow for novelty in domesticated monogamous contexts exploiting the fact that men “ejaculate greater volume and more motive sperm, and they do it more quickly, when they view a novel porn star.”5
So strong is the underlying will of nature in man that there is a mechanical nature to the male sexual equipment. “The occasion of an erection is a motive, as it is a representation, yet it operates with the necessity of a stimulus, in other words it cannot be resisted, but it must be put away in order to be made ineffective”.6 It is for this reason that it is incredibly easy to rape a man. In contrast to having the full faculties of his penis, the conscious male mind is actually helpless to its automatic physicality. A man who is made erect and bought to ejaculation is just as much of a medical procedure as an injection of virus or chemical and the inevitable resulting effects.
There is an underlying veracity to the human male which is driven by the will and manifests in his inherent tendency to violence and his insatiable sexual appetite. The female has evolved to be wary of these aspects of the opposite sex and society has generated social technology to ensure they remain as subterranean to public interaction as possible.
“We usually only expose the underside of our wrists to others when we are comfortable or at ease. This is often seen in dating situations where women will play with her hair, palm out, while talking to someone in whom she is interested.”7
Both monogamy and the construct of ‘dating’ are social technologies. Invented by the intellectual pole of man to oppose the violent pole of the will. Monogamy allows for a greater number of men to have access to sex and propagate, this leads to more stable and less violent societies as there are less males with nothing to lose. “Self-preservation and maintenance are his first aim, and as soon as he has provided for that, he aims only at the propagation of the race;” for this reason monogamy appears to be a true luxury of a civilized society.8 Whereas, ‘dating’ allows for the careful vetting of potential partners and is an extended selection mechanism beyond the physical. ‘Dating’, which sublimates the appetites of sex and romance into the same format as a job interview, domesticates the ugly nature of mate selection and perhaps serves as the current most-developed form of eugenical realism. The intellect believes: Freedom is no lofty goal. Freedom is, actually bad for most. We do better in chains because the human is animal.
Schopenhauer, A. (1966). The World as Will and Representation, Volume I. Translated by Payne, E.F.J. New York: Dover Publications. p.203
Schopenhauer, A. (2014). Essays and Aphorisms. Translated by Hollingdale, R.J. London: Penguin Classics. p.172 On Psychology, 17
Wilson, G. (2014). Your Brain on Porn: Internet Pornography and the Emerging Science of Addiction. United Kingdom: Commonwealth Publishing. p.57
Ibid. p. 65
Ibid. p. 68
Schopenhauer, A. (1966). The World as Will and Representation, Volume I. Translated by Payne, E.F.J. New York: Dover Publications. p.116
Navarro, J. (2018). The Dictionary Of Body Language. Harper Thorsons. p.11
Schopenhauer, A. (1966). The World as Will and Representation, Volume I. Translated by Payne, E.F.J. New York: Dover Publications. p.329