God, Sex & Repression
American culture demands that we control
our impulses and desires - especially sexual desires -
enough to live up to the moral rules
The quest for certainty focuses on
a "control of self" that "through discipline"
finally becomes self-control
Why is the US an authoritarian state?
It can be summed up in two words: sexual repression
The restrictions on sexual activity imposed
through the father-dominated family structure
produces people dependent on authority
and incapable of independent thought and action<
Controlling Passion [Asia Times]
American culture has always put a spotlight on the question: Can you control your impulses and desires - especially sexual desires - enough to live up to the moral rules?
As historian of religion John F Wilson tells us, the quest for certainty has typically focused on a "control of self" that "through discipline" finally becomes self-control.
In the 2008 presidential campaign, this still remains true. Listen, for example, to Barack Obama:
"My Bible tells me that if we train a child in the way he should go, when he is old he will not turn from it.
"So I think faith and guidance can help fortify ... a sense of reverence that all young people should have for the act of sexual intimacy."
Mitt Romney fit snugly into the same mold. He started his widely-heralded statement on religion by talking about a time when "our nation faced its greatest peril", a threat to "the survival of a free land".
Was he talking about terrorism? No. He immediately went on to warn that the real danger comes from "human passions unbridled".
Only morality and religion can do the necessary bridling, he argued, quoting John Adams to make his case:
"Our constitution was made for a moral and religious people" - in other words, people who can control themselves. That's why "freedom requires religion".
All too often, though, the faith-talk view of freedom ends up taking away freedom.
When Romney said he'd be "delighted" to sign "a federal ban on all abortions", only a minority of Americans approved of that position (if we can believe the polls), but it was a sizeable minority. For them, fear of unbridled passion is stronger than any commitment to personal freedom.
In the end, it may be mostly their own passions that they fear. But since the effort to control oneself is frustrating, it can easily turn into a quest for "control over other selves", to quote historian Wilson again, "with essentially bipolar frameworks for conceiving of the world: good versus bad, us versus them" - "them" being liberals, secular humanists, wild kids, or whatever label the moment calls for.
The upholders of virtue want to convince each other that their values are absolutely true.
So they stick together and stand firm against those who walk in error. As Romney put it, "Any person who has knelt in prayer to the Almighty has a friend and ally in me."
That's the main dynamic driving the movements to ban abortion and gay marriage. But they're just the latest in a long line of such movements, including those aimed at prohibiting or restricting alcohol, drugs, gambling, birth control, crime, and other behaviors that are, in a given period, styled as immoral.
The Authoritarian Father Figure in American Culture [Radical Left]
Father figures dominate Christian culture. Starting with God and ending with Bush. Figures of authority, control and discipline. America is one mother-fucking patriarchal society.
Like the Puritans of old and subsequent evangelicals, Bush seems to take literally the notion of original sin, in which the most intimate human relation is contaminated, forever scarring all subsequent generations.
His sexuality seems to be one of prohibition, a sexuality infused with a shame of the physical body and its wilder passions.
One can only suspect that this repression is rooted in a deep, personal knowledge--and fear--of the excesses of self-indulgence, an outgrowth of W's equally threatening excesses of alcohol and cocaine.
The Bush presidency is today's incarnation of the long-festering Puritan curse.
But keeping with the times, Bush's public sexuality embodies a highly fetishized eroticism, replete with all kinds of symbolic meaning.
Strutting about in his Top Gun uniform or with his sleeves rolled up while he ineptly asserted command amidst the debacle of Hurricane Katrina, Bush is a fetishist's dream come true.
He understands (if only unconsciously) that the trappings of power, the costumes, the proclamations, the public presentations, are as essential as its exercise, the wars conducted, the deals cut, the legislation passed.
Whether in a Top Gun outfit, a business suit or swaggering in a cowboy getup, Bush's uniforms codify a fetishistic representation of power.