Synchronicity abounds . . . was travelling the Web for an unrelated subject and just happen to find this article . . .



THE NEW EPICUREANS:
Sex and Violence, Pleasure and Pain, Grace and Decadence
by Thomas Moore

If you look closely at the dynamics of world culture, you see conflicts not just among religions and societies, but between world views and sensibilities. There are those who are generally comfortable with life and enjoy differences in their neighbors. Others seem anxious and express their anxiety in moralism and aggression.

Beneath these struggles you can also see indications of deep conflicts about sex and power. There are those who enjoy life’s pleasures and those who deny themselves and would deny others. Some say that the fear of death inspires some people to be negative and aggressive, but I sense that the real problem is a fear of life.

Life moves along, as many have said, like a river. It will not stay within the boundaries that comfort us. That movement of life is the erotic or sexual nature of reality. Sex is the archetype of life. In sex we meet life’s positive power and its refusal to be neatly boxed.

But when fear of life dominates and sex in its wide and deep forms is repressed, the deep soul power of sex is transmuted into the blind destructive power of violence. But there is a positive aspect to this connection between eros and aggression. In the National Gallery in London you can see a celebrated painting by Sandro Botticelli known as Venus and Mars. This painting is a condensation of many treatises on the ways in which Venus tames Mars and Mars strengthens Venus. It is an image offering a resolution to the problem of sex and aggression.

That painting appeared at a time when many writers were discussing the possibility of a soulful culture. Many of these were professed Epicureans. They accepted the idea that one of life’s central “tasks” is the pursuit of pleasure. They were not hedonists but moderates in quest of the deep pleasures of friendship, art, and spiritual conviviality.

So, I am not suggesting any kind of sexual abandon or breakdown of sexual morality. But I do think we need to rediscover the Epicurean life, a life of simple and deep pleasures. Today we are creating a culture of efficiency and functionality, two soulless goals. A revival of the Epicurean life might help us deal effectively with the repression of eros that is implicated in violence and simply makes people mean-spirited. We don’t need more or better sexual experiences, but we do need a more erotic culture.

I believe that Freud was correct when he said that the exaggerated display of a thing signifies its absence. Our oversexed society is not sufficiently erotic.

Deep in the etymology of “violence” is a strong Latin word VIS. It is the power in nature that we sense in the surging sea and the growth of grass. In our experiences of violence we witness the vain attempt of life to push itself into existence and visibility. This is a sexual power. Sex is not just about making bodies but making souls as well. The people of the world need every opportunity to be creative and visible. They need to ENJOY life, not just survive. Without that opportunity, they will turn to violence, in spite of themselves.

I am suggesting giving attention to pleasure, and not just to survival and responsibility; to graceful living in a decadent time; and to a deeper and broader sexuality as a way to bring Venus’s balm to our Martial extravagances. We, who consider ourselves on the edge of thought, could set the example by living and expressing ourselves with grace.

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THOMAS MOORE, PH.D.
Thomas Moore is a psychotherapist and theologian. He wrote the phenomenal bestsellers Dark Nights of the Soul, Care of the Soul and SoulMates as well as many other successful books. Moore was a Catholic monk for twelve years and later became a psychotherapist, earning degrees in theology, musicology, and religion.

www.careofthesoul.net