Kipling said something similar.
Poems - ‘The Gods of the Copybook Headings’
The Gods of the Copybook Headings
AS I PASS through my incarnations in every age and race,
I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market Place.
Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.
We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn
That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn:
But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breadth of Mind,
So we left them to teach the Gorillas while we followed the March of Mankind.
We moved as the Spirit listed. They never altered their pace,
Being neither cloud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the Market Place,
But they always caught up with our progress, and presently word would come
That a tribe had been wiped off its icefield, or the lights had gone out in Rome.
With the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of touch,
They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch;
They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings;
So we worshipped the Gods of the Market Who promised these beautiful things.
When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “Stick to the Devil you know.”
On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life
(Which started by loving our neighbour and ended by loving his wife)
Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “The Wages of Sin is Death.”
In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “If you don’t work you die.”
Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew
And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true
That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.
As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began.
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool’s bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;
And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!
I think that children need a father and a mother, so anything that destroys the stability of marriage is liable to produce an emotionally crippled subsequent generation.
Often the abandonment of sexual morality goes hand in hand with a loss of respect for other forms of morality. This begs the question if monogamy and premarital chastity are not a society’s moral value to begin with, will there be any problem?
Equating sex with drinking a glass of water degrades the sex partner. Degrading human beings is definitely going to set a dangerous precedent and contribute to the decay of society in general.
Can we have a society where a “namaste” sexuality is the norm, where sex is always an expression of love and respect for another human being, regardless of whether the sex act takes place within a marriage?
Can we have a society where healthy extramarital sexuality can be viewed as morally acceptable rather than as a loosening of moral standards and, therefore, an excuse to commit other crimes and undisciplined ethical breaches?
Can we do these things and still provide all children with superior masculine and feminine parenting?
I suspect the answer to all three questions is “NO”.
All that runs counter to the recent studies in evolutionary psychology.
At least 200K years built into survival of the species has made the human race as it is. Try as they might, and MIGHTILY they try, the social engineers cannot change the basic wiring of the two sexes. Sexual roles are not social constructs. Gender is not a social construct. With extremely rare exceptions, one is born either a male or female, either an inseminator or an incubator. And never the two shall be equal in this respect.
This has all happened before. Rome, Byzantium, Abbasids,Soviet Union, Germany, . . .
American Judicial Terrorism May Lead to Widespread Violence | angiEmedia
I agree with you, and well said too!
In todays society, I notice that most people behave very selfishly in extramarital contacts. I also notice that the more religious a society is, the less loving and respectful premarital contacts are. For example, I know many young Dutch atheists who have a very loving, unwedded relationship and who would never sleep with someone they did not love. I see that in the US, where premarital sex is seen as more naughty, men especially have less respect for women they are sleeping with but not planning on marrying. This is even worse in a more conservative region or time. The difference is that one adheres to values that do not prohibit unmarried sex (Sex and love belong together, we love eachother, so we have sex), while the other does not adhere to the values he espouses. (Unmarried sex is a sin, my sex partner is a sinner, I am a sinner) One who thinks of his partner as a bad person is less motivated to stay around and invest in children if they come. They feel little empathy for someone they are sinning with for the time being. And a person who sees himself as living immorally, will do other things that are against his values.
For many people once sex is not exclusive to the marriage, the investment made in the marriage and the children goes down, this makes sense biologically. Yet, many people are quite driven to sleep around and make cuckoos, this too make sense biologically. We need to recognize that we are not all the same. I know people who can see their partner sleep around and who enjoy this, I know people who can have more than one spouse, I know people who can be celibate for life and I know people who can wait until marriage to have sex even while they are incredily horny. There can be a place in life for all these people.
Most people however are not honest with themselves nor with their partner about their needs. For example, people who say they will be faithful, though they have cheated in the 3 previous relationships. People who deny their feelings of jealousy, yet feel unhappy and ‘check out’ emotionally from the marriage. Or people who say they can love without marriage, but know their partner is hoping the relationship will last forever, while they know they will leave the person they are with to marry someone else. Who know they will break a heart, but will not be honest because they fear to be alone or lead a sexless life. And sometimes people are honest with their words, but not really respectful or loving. Their honesty is not based on empathy, they give part of the truth to get it over with and dodge the blame. When you start with empathy, you genuinely want the other person to feel happy and you try to make the right choices. This kind of attitude is more often found among people who really love each other, and more often among married than unmarried couples and very rarely in extamarital relations.
That said, unless you repress people rather severely, most people will have some premarital partners and some will commit adultery. I’m not a fan of societies who treat people cruelly or brand them for life over premarital or extramarital sex. People can and do learn from their mistakes. I prefer a society that does not legislate morality, but does teach values.
Especially if they go to extremes (Taliban stones man and woman to death for allegedly having affair - CNN.com)!:eek: