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The Notorious Scene in Thanatos Syndrome Seems Tame, Comparably Speaking….

July 19, 2010 by at 4:53 pm

MAJOR MAJOR ICK FACTOR ( i.e. ICK-FACTOR-TO-THE-LUDICROUS-POWER!) AHEAD!

It has since faded into obscurity, but the members of the 1968 movement and their successors were caught up in a strange obsession about childhood sexuality. It is a chapter of the movement’s history which is never mentioned in the more glowing accounts of the era. On this issue, the veterans of the late ’60s student movement seem to have succumbed to acute amnesia; an analysis of this aspect of the student revolution would certainly be worthwhile.

26 Comments Filed Under: Earth

Comments

  1. Anonymous says
    July 19, 2010 at 5:13 pm

    I didn't read it. Catholicism seems to be a cover for prurience in some cases.

    Reply
  2. Matthew Lickona says
    July 19, 2010 at 5:35 pm

    Oh, Anon, you say the sweetest things.

    Reply
  3. JOB says
    July 19, 2010 at 5:43 pm

    Anon.

    But in this case, it's really to show that secular lefists make no such claims about their own prurience.

    They've literally let it all hang out – and now there's documented proof – systemic even.

    Generally speaking, I presented this article to the Korrektiv Kommunity to show once again, pace Marx, if you've given up the ghost of the Natural Law in one area of your life, it's going to show in another.

    Please read Paul Johnson's Intellectuals – THEN come back and read this article again.

    But the Leftists will ever deny that they've warped any law whatsoever – after all "Liberalism" is a liberation from something, right? Would you be surprised to learn that it is a striving to be free of the Natural Law (especially as it is codified in many of the Church's teachings…). I would imagine that Lefties perhaps hold the same sentiment you seem to suggest in your outrage – shoot the messenger, but by no means believe the message.

    JOB

    Reply
  4. JOB says
    July 19, 2010 at 5:46 pm

    Anon.,

    Upon further review: OK, outrage is rather strong.

    I take it back.

    It would be muffled indignation, then.

    JOB

    Reply
  5. Jonathan Webb says
    July 19, 2010 at 6:49 pm

    Bizarre. Thanks.

    Reminds me of Jonestown, one of the formative events which turned me against the Left. You guys are bit young to remember I think, but there is a lot of fertile ground for better understanding the sort of post-human thought involved in the struggle for American culture today. In other words, I don't think Jim Jones was as much an outlier as a logical end result of a mode of being and thought.

    Reply
  6. Jonathan Webb says
    July 19, 2010 at 6:55 pm

    Anonymous, after we drive the infidels from the Mother Country, we're turning our sights on the Anglicans.

    Reply
  7. Quin Finnegan says
    July 19, 2010 at 8:13 pm

    That's … grim. I think the notes in the briefcase and perhpas the various accounts in Tageszeitung and Frankfurter Rundschau qualify as the "persecution literature" Girard takes up in The Scapegoat.

    Which is to say, the reason we have these records at all is that people like Hans Magnus believed in the cause so much that they were eager to create a paper trail documenting their achievements. I don't mean to make an academic point here: liberators are persecutors, whether you're Tomás de Torquemada or Eberhard Schultz.

    Anon: Note that the references to Catholicism in the article – all two of them – are made as a way of excluding Catholicism from relevance to the subject at hand. Perhaps your point is that the bloggers at Korrektiv, being Catholic, are using their status as Catholics to cover their prurience? In which case we're not covering it very well, are we?

    Reply
  8. Matthew Lickona says
    July 19, 2010 at 8:24 pm

    Nah – I think Anon means that we're prurient, and that we're indulging our prurience in the name of shining a Catholic light on things. "Why, just look at all this evil, glistening, nubile, sinful flesh – horrible, horrible, yes, yes, and there's MORE over here…" That sort of thing. And I fear Anon's suspicion is mostly my fault. My sincere apologies.

    Reply
  9. Quin Finnegan says
    July 19, 2010 at 8:28 pm

    Webb: Not at all too young; I remember it very well. This was when cults were gaining in prominence: the Hari Krishnas, the Moonies, Scientology … I remember the cover of Newsweek or TIme with the big vat of purple Kool-Aid front and center (here it is, just as I remember!).

    I remember this provoked a lot of discussion among the adults. "Sure it's a cult. But darling, what isn't a cult? The Witnesses are a cult. Some might say the Catholic Church is a cult … be a dear and pour me more Chablis, won't you?" Etc., ad nauseum.

    Good times, good times.

    Reply
  10. Jonathan Webb says
    July 19, 2010 at 10:20 pm

    She thinks we're prurient, but she keeps reading (thanks for that by the way), so maybe we're not JUST prurient.

    Could the attraction be my pop orchestral YouTube links?

    Reply
  11. Rufus McCain says
    July 19, 2010 at 10:30 pm

    She likes formal verse.

    Reply
  12. Jonathan Webb says
    July 20, 2010 at 3:29 am

    You guys are funny.

    Speaking of funny, where's Southern ExPat?

    Reply
  13. Dorian Speed says
    July 21, 2010 at 12:27 am

    I'm not sure where she went. She might think you're equating her with Anonymous, though.

    Reply
  14. Southern Expat says
    July 21, 2010 at 1:40 am

    I read enough of the first page to get the gist, and I read it using my patented "eyes half squinting" technique – the same one I use when dealing with cockroaches. If you cannot fully see this horror, it is less real. Or something.

    Anyway, my thoughts are:

    1. I wonder if Percy knew about some of this stuff and that's why it worked its way into Thanatos Syndrome. I love that book but am hesitant to recommend it to friends unfamiliar with Percy because of the notoriousness. It seems like Percy isn't one of those authors whom readers automatically "get" and so I try not to suggest reading Thanatos if I'm not sure they'll like Percy.

    2. My immediate reaction to this type of filth is instant homicidal rage.

    3. I think the question of prurience/shining a light into the darkness is to some degree a matter of what one can tolerate. Have discussed this with one Matthew Lickona, in fact. I can't read some of the T.I.P. features because they make me deeply depressed, but I think there is a point to not just ignoring the seepage of pornography into popular culture.

    4. I'm confused, but maybe it's because I'm new in town. How do you know that Anonymous is female? Because of the content of the comments, or because of past history?

    Reply
  15. Matthew Lickona says
    July 21, 2010 at 3:40 am

    Yes, yes, it's because you're new. Otherwise, you'd know never to ask Webb about his mysterious past.

    Reply
  16. Southern Expat says
    July 21, 2010 at 4:19 am

    You know, I try to bring some insight to the table, and this is what I get.

    Reply
  17. Matthew Lickona says
    July 21, 2010 at 4:57 am

    What do you expect at a Catholic blog? Common human decency?

    Reply
  18. Rufus McCain says
    July 21, 2010 at 5:31 am

    Dear SExP: I've thought about digging through the archives to compile all the info we've gleaned on our friend Anonymous over the years. And, yes, there have been various anonymous commenters at different times, to be sure, but … there is only one primary and unmistakable Anonymous whom we've grown to know and love. She lives in England, is a professor of political philosophy or some such at the British equivalent of a technical college, and once brought a bottle of Corona to work and shared it with a colleague in the staff room. She has had an abortion, she has read Walker Percy and found him a bit boring, she is thankful she has moved beyond Raymond Carver, and she likes to drop by on occasion and upbraid Mr. Webb for not behaving like a good Catholic (yes that was her, not my Mom!) or otherwise yank the Korrektiv chain. I suggested she should change her name from Anonymous to Lady Gadfly, but she ignored the suggestion. She has also read most if not all of Quin's novel–and God bless her for that.

    Reply
  19. Southern Expat says
    July 21, 2010 at 6:15 am

    I am so totally serious that you all must not abbreviate my pseudonym in this prurient matter or I am either out of here or will crown myself Admin and wreak havoc. HAVOC. I am a lady. And I am married to a man with mad computer hacking skills.

    Reply
  20. Rufus McCain says
    July 21, 2010 at 6:34 am

    Sorry, I missed the memo. I'm glad we've established your gender now, though.

    Reply
  21. Rufus McCain says
    July 21, 2010 at 6:36 am

    I'm also disappointed that you actually spelled out "you all" and didn't break out the "y'all" for us!

    Reply
  22. Matthew Lickona says
    July 21, 2010 at 6:42 am

    I'm gonna suggest SEP (a la JOB). Don't leave us!

    Reply
  23. Southern Expat says
    July 21, 2010 at 11:55 am

    Ah. SEP it shall be. Pardon me. I have trained myself to spot all instances of innuendo within the tri-state area. The best defense being a good offense, working with teenagers, etc., etc.

    I also think my gender was revealed when I described the eye-squinting method of dealing with cockroaches, but perhaps I'm stereotyping.

    Reply
  24. JOB says
    July 21, 2010 at 1:58 pm

    Oh my, look what I started!

    And I'd like to start over.

    Some sort of apology is in the offing, I can just feel it in me bones…

    JOB

    Reply
  25. Rufus McCain says
    July 21, 2010 at 6:53 pm

    Wait, isn't there some debate as to weather Texas counts as Southern? In which case does "Expat" suggest which side you're on in that debate? I mean, I know Texas is large, and you're not supposed to mess with it, but I thought it was so large that in fact it encompasses or at least overlaps "Southern"?

    In any case, welcome to Korrektiv Southern Expat. I'm glad you're on board with us here.

    Reply
  26. Southern Expat says
    July 21, 2010 at 8:36 pm

    Hawking every ware imaginable in the shape of one's state is vulgar. That's the side I'm taking here.

    Reply

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