We remarked here on the difficulty of striking a rational balance between traditional morality and enlightened freedom. No, we don’t want to go back to those pre-antibiotic days of arranged marriages (although…) and various forms of despotism. We’ll even prefer the liberal democracy of Current Year, such as it is, to a feudal manor. It’s equally clear that if current social trends proceed apace (and they’re showing no robust signs of abating), the world will head to a dark, scary place.
A lot of this hinges on how permissive/restrictive the society is on sexuality. Strict biblicalism is no fun (who said life was about fun?!), but does lead to prosperous stability. Free-for-all uninhibited hedonism can be fun for a while, but the bill always comes due. Can one strike a reasonable compromise, a sort of best-of-both-worlds?
Famous for our Solomonic compromises, we believe we have one here too. The key is the public/private distinction. Condemn degeneracy in public, and punish its excesses. Turn a blind eye to most private behavior among consenting adults, as long as it’s done with modesty and discretion. Fill in the details.
posttenuretourettes 
Still partaking in Whig Historiography I see. The bleeding is not going to be staunched by reverting to late 20th century mores. It’s too late for that. What’s coming is going to make Robespierre, Stalin, Hitler, et al, look like a bunch of pikers. The idea of living as a Middle Ages feudal serf will seem preferable, like a happy respite in retrospect. Assuming we enough food or live long enough to care.
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“The key is the public/private distinction. Condemn degeneracy in public, and punish its excesses. Turn a blind eye to most private behavior among consenting adults, as long as it’s done with modesty and discretion. Fill in the details.”
Who enforces this proposed sexually repressive culture? The State? The Church? Societal norms? Modesty and Discretion Enforcement Task Force? Seems in some ways like what we already do largely. I’m a bit confused as to what you’re advocating that is new or different.
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I would be ok with enshrining prohibitions against public degeneracy in law and enforcing such laws with predictable regularity.
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Those laws are largely on the books currently. While some sodomy laws have been rescinded, overall they remain in the code. The same holds true for many decency laws, just a bunch of dinosaurs hanging around unenforced. In typical fashion of a post empirical truth world, it is all selectively applied.
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So it should be applied like I said: uniformly and transparently. Like all laws in a lawful regime.
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Fair, good luck! There may very well be something missing that needs to be addressed culturally to get to your desired end state.
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I don’t see this happening anytime soon. I see no plausible path for achieving this. This is all pure theorizing.
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True, refer to my first post.
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I find myself thinking about this old Derb piece so much lately… https://www.johnderbyshire.com/Opinions/HumanSciences/homophobiacornucopia.html
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