by PenultimateManStanding » Wed 11 Apr 2007, 20:38:23
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Eli', '
')Qutb seems just like your average uptight Muslim, the overt sexiness of girls and boys dancing together made him fear for his own country.
This is at the core of the issue. We, who have grown up in this culture, think of it as 'up-tight'. But sexual passion and how its dealt with is heavy stuff, right at the heart of any culture. Its also an issue that lies at the center of the individual/collective antagonism. Some in this thread are saying that kids can't learn anymore because of 'sensory overload'. I regard that as nonsense, completely irrelevant. The real issue is psychological repression. When individuals don't feel free to 'let it all hang out', when they don't feel free to have car bumper stickers that say 'screw guilt', when they don't feel free to advertise their perversity (which Freud regarded as the human condition), in short, when individuals are afraid of what the community thinks then they repress themselves. The collective can (but not always) benefit from sublimated energy, bought at the price of individual suffering. That's the way its always been. When more and more individuals shake off the societal constrictions the result is what's called 'decadence'. Its another one of those
damned if we do, damned if we don't scenarios.