CHAPTER XVI

THE SEXUAL QUESTION IN POLITICS AND IN POLITICAL ECONOMY Power and money have always been the principal aims of politics. Political economy is a science which deals with the great family of nations and their conditions of existence. Based on history, statistics and observation, it seeks for the laws which govern the production, consumption and division of goods, labor and its products, the social organization of nations, their health, the increase or decrease of the population, the death-rate, birth-rate, etc. I cannot here enter into the details of the domestic economy of the nation, as this is beyond my province. I may, however, point out that this science has too much neglected the natural sciences, owing to its traditional connection with politics. In 1881 Cognetti de Martiis[11] had already attempted to apply the ideas of evolution to political economy. Recently, Prof. Eugene Schwiedland of Vienna treated the same subject in an interesting study of the ideas of want and desire in human psychology.[12] So far, it is only the quantity and not the quality of men which has been taken into account, originating from the false idea that man made in God's image can only come into the world in a perfect state. If he was often malformed in body and mind, this was the fault of his sins. Even hereditary degeneration to the third and fourth generation was considered as divine punishment for the sins of the fathers on the children. =War.=--The despots of olden times, like those of to-day, have always regarded men as instruments of their ambition or even as food for cannon. When Napoleon I established a bounty for large families, he was no doubt thinking of the number of soldiers he could make for the use of his son. He had good reason to provide for the replenishment of the ranks of his army. The mental quality of the individuals mattered little to him. Wars are a harmful factor in human selection, for they destroy or mutilate the fittest in the prime of life, while leaving the unfit and the aged. Moreover, we have already seen to what an extent the quality and even the quantity of soldiers suffer from venereal disease and alcohol. After certain long wars the male population has been decimated to such a point that polygamy had to be resorted to to reconstitute the nation. It is, therefore, obvious that wars have a bad influence on the sexual relations of men, and hence on the quantity, or what is still worse, the quality of a nation. =Statistics.=--Political economy is still more important. I do not doubt the correctness of the figures which tell us that under this or that economic system the population increases, while under another system it diminishes, etc. But these are only summary data whose true causes remain in the dark. It is necessary to carefully study the factors which produce these figures. Emigration and immigration with their causes, the intimate habits of individuals and families, their willingness and aptitude for work, etc. One fact which follows another is not always the direct consequence of it and if we examine things more closely, we arrive at curious results. =Alcohol.=--Things being otherwise equal, it is found that nations who abstain from alcohol and those who are moderate consumers are more prolific than nations who are addicted to drink. In Russia, for instance, the abstainers, although of the same race and living under the same conditions, are more prolific than their neighbors who drink. As we have already pointed out, alcohol greatly deteriorates the quality of man by blastophthoria, and we must agree with men such as Darwin, Gladstone, Cobden, Comte, etc., that alcohol (even in so-called moderation) does more harm to a nation than war, plague and famine together. We find here an economic factor of the first order, to which the majority of economists (with the exception of Cobden) are blind. It is a very short-sighted policy to regard the alcohol industry as a source of wealth and welfare for nations. What an amount of labor, human power and valuable land is employed to produce this mischievous substance which, although useful in pharmacy and other industries, neither nourishes nor strengthens, but deteriorates the organism and leads to degeneration of the race! If it were not so sad, it would be ridiculous to observe the serious way in which high officials, or even scientists, calculate the product of taxes on distilled and fermented liquors, the laws for their import and export, the monopoly of their manufacture, etc. It is remarkable how the budget is balanced by the aid of the alcoholic intoxication of the people, and how people are made to believe that a masterpiece of political economy is thereby achieved. In reality, the health and strength of the nation are sacrificed. This kind of political economy can only be qualified as false and deceitful. We cannot too often nor too strongly stigmatize its destructive influence on sexual matters and on the hereditary energies of humanity. =Density of Population.=--As regards the most desirable figures for population, opinions are diametrically opposed. Some authors look for the happiness of humanity in prolific reproduction, and imagine that by utilizing all parts of the globe an unlimited number of people could be supported by its produce. We cannot regard with favor this singular Chinese-like ideal, which would tend to transform the whole world into a huge cornfield for the raising of men like rabbits. Moreover, it is greatly to be feared that the real Chinese, when they have become sufficiently armed and re-civilized, will transform the surface of the earth into a human stable, if we do not take sufficient precautions. =Neo-malthusianism.=--On the other hand, a certain group of idealists, the neo-malthusianists, have declared a war of extermination against all increase of the population. I have myself been accused by one of them of committing a crime by procreating more than four children! Neo-malthusianists of this kind only deal with quantity and do not concern themselves with quality. They recommend, as we do, the employment of anticonceptional measures, but they do so without any discrimination. They address themselves to the altruistic and intelligent portion of the public, and induce the most useful members of society to procreate as little as possible, without recognizing that with their system, not only the Chinese and negroes, but, among European races, the most incapable and amoral classes of the population are those who trouble the least about their maximum number of children. Hence, the result they obtain is exactly the opposite of what they intend. Among the North Americans and New Zealanders, with whom neo-malthusianism is very prevalent, the number of births among the intelligent classes is diminishing to an alarming extent, while the Chinese and negroes multiply exceedingly. In France, the practice of neo-malthusianism is chiefly due to reasons of economy. =Rational Selection.=--These two extremes, which are equally absurd, should be replaced by rational selection. Neo-malthusianism should be confined to the unfit of all kinds, and to the lower races. On the contrary, the fit should be urged to multiply as much as possible. By this means we obtain an indirect factor of the first order for a rational political economy; I even maintain that it is the most important of all. No doubt its action is extremely slow, and it would take centuries to obtain a definite result. But if the principle of proper human selection ever prevails, we may confidently hope for a good future for our descendants. A time will come when the human population of the earth will become more or less stationary. If, in the meantime, human nature has succeeded in appreciably improving its quality, and in gradually suppressing the physical and mental proletariat with its poverty, hunger and brutality, which now infests the world--then only will the dogmas of our modern neo-malthusianists acquire a certain object for the whole world. If humanity does not soon begin to degenerate by brutish accumulation, but finds in time the means to gradually elevate its quality, our future descendants will take care not to abandon rational selection. A capable and active man gives to society much more than he receives, and thus forms an economic asset. A person who is unfit in body or mind, receives more than he gives, and thus constitutes an economic deficit. =Contrary Selection.=--We have seen in Chapter VI how certain customs of essentially human origin ended by becoming part of religion. Unfortunately for humanity, religion and politics have at all times generally combined to do wrong. The celibacy of priests (to say nothing of the Inquisition, religious wars, and the fatalism of Islam) which is based on a kind of religious politics, has largely resulted in sterilizing the more intelligent among Catholic races. The prohibition of inquiry into paternity is another abominable custom of the same kind introduced by Napoleon. Laws of this nature lead to artificial abortion and encourage promiscuous intercourse. The safety of families and sexual intercourse lies in the duties of parents toward their children. The principal task of a political economy which has the true happiness of men at heart, should be to encourage the procreation of happy, useful, healthy and hard-working individuals. To build an ever-increasing number of hospitals, asylums for lunatics, idiots and incurables, reformatories, etc.; to provide them with every comfort, and manage them scientifically, is no doubt a very fine thing, and speaks well of the progress and development of human sympathy. But, what is forgotten, is that by concerning ourselves almost exclusively with human ruins, the results of our social abuses, we gradually weaken the forces of the healthy portion of the population. By attacking the roots of the evil and limiting the procreation of the unfit, we shall be performing a work which is much more humanitarian, if less striking in its effect. Formerly, our economists and politicians hardly ever considered this question, and even now very few are interested in it, because it brings neither honors nor money, as we do not ourselves see the fruits of such efforts. Any one who aims at serious reforms and puts his hand to the work is looked upon as eccentric, or even mad. This is why we are contented with the kind of humanitarianism which makes a show and panders to the sentimentality of the masses, by holding out a charitable hand to the visible and audible evils which make women weep. In short, we amuse ourselves with repairing the ruins, but are afraid of attacking what makes these ruins! =The Laws of Lycurgus.=--There was once in Sparta a great legislator named Lycurgus, who attempted to introduce a kind of human selection into the laws. He wished to make the Spartans a strong nation, because at that time bodily strength was almost the only ideal of the people. He understood the value of hardness but not that of work. The importance of selective elimination of the diseased and weak was apparent to his pre-Darwinian intuition, but in his time natural laws were not understood. However, in spite of their failings, the laws of Lycurgus succeeded up to a certain point in making the Spartans a strong nation. According to the laws of Lycurgus, the Spartan inherited no property, and was forbidden all luxury. He had to eat his simple black broth with his fellows, and to exercise himself continually in trials of strength and skill. Every Spartan had to marry, and the bonds of matrimony were strictly observed. Every weak child was eliminated. But there were two fundamental errors in the Spartan organization. First of all, the Spartan was a warrior, but not a worker, and although hardened, was an aristocrat. He left all labor to his slaves, and in this way strengthened his slaves and enfeebled himself in many respects. The value of work in strengthening and developing the brain and the whole body was not then understood. In the second place, all the efforts of the Spartans were directed toward muscular strength, bodily skill, courage, and simple wants, but not at all toward a life of higher intelligence or ideal sentiments. The exclusiveness with which they only promoted man's bodily development, while neglecting his intellect, their negligence of the laws of organic evolution due to ignorance of natural science, would sooner or later have led to the decay of the Spartans. However, it was not the laws of Lycurgus in themselves, but their abandonment, which was the direct cause of the decadence of Sparta. The Spartans only sought for power, and this led to envy and jealousy, a deplorable although indirect result of the exclusiveness of their laws. These laws, however, will always constitute a unique historical document, a remarkable attempt at human selection. We are at the present day incomparably better armed intellectually than Lycurgus to deal with the question of selection. What is chiefly wanting is initiative on the part of the men who are charged with the government of their fellows. They are so deeply absorbed in economic interests and rival influences, that all desire of aspiring to a higher social ideal is paralyzed and etiolated in them. We require a powerful social shaking if we are to make steady progress. =Politics and the Sexual Question.=--"_Cherchez la femme_" is the common expression when anything unusual occurs in society. It would be more correct to say "Look for the sexual motive!" The actions of men are determined much more by their passions and sentiments than by purely intellectual reflection, _i.e._, by reason and logic. But no sentiment is stronger than the direct sexual sentiment, or its derivatives--love, jealousy and hatred. From this results a fact which social systems have too much neglected, namely: that in all the domains of human social activity, the sexual passions and their psychic irradiations often interact directly or indirectly in a mischievous way. Mistresses and courtesans have always played a considerable part in political intrigue. It is not necessary to have such a tragic scandal as that which caused the assassination of the king and queen of Servia. Everyday influences, even the smallest and most dissimulated, are often the most efficacious. Sexual intrigues have at all times influenced and directed the fate of nations. History relates a number of cases of this kind, but there are many more which have never been revealed to the public. It is sufficient to mention this fact. Every one who reflects will find an illustration of it, in the history of the past as well as in the politics of the present, in the courts of monarchs and in small democracies, in the local history of provinces, in his own parish, and lastly among his own relatives, friends and acquaintances. =Sexual Life in Social Action.=--The socialist who said that the social question was exclusively a question of stomach mistook its scope as well as human psychology. However admirably the economic relations of men and their work may be regulated, the introduction of sexual passions into social life will never be eliminated. All that can be done is to give both sexes an education which will elevate their social conscience and attenuate the evil influences exercised by personal sexual sentiments on social actions. The sexual question, therefore, intervenes in politics and in the whole of social life. Moreover, if the deplorable social influence of money and the attraction it exerts could be eliminated, antisocial acts, which only depend indirectly on the sexual passions, would lose much of their danger and infamy. =The Rôle of Women.=--Here again, much may be expected from the free emancipation of woman, and from her work in social questions in conjunction with man. This work in common will make them more clearly understand the high importance of their social task. Then sexual life will encourage social development instead of hindering it; it will cease to be considered as an egoistic pleasure but as a means of procreation, and will become the acme of an existence founded on the joy of work. We can already see, in countries where women have a vote, that they know very well how to benefit by social progress. If it is objected that woman is more conservative and more routine than man, I reply that this inconvenience is compensated by the fact that she is on the whole more inclined to enthusiasm, and to be led by noble masculine natures, who have the sense of the ideal, than by others (vide Chapter V). Her great perseverance and courage are also inestimable qualities for social work which aims at true progress. =Necessity and Desire.=--In the work which I have already quoted, Schwiedland points out the need for distinguishing between necessity and desire, in political economy. In practice it is no doubt difficult to always make an exact distinction between necessity and luxury. What our ancestors considered as luxuries we now regard as necessities. Man knows no limits in his desires; he is insatiable in his passion for pleasure and change. Certain socialists, especially anarchists, make a great mistake in proclaiming the right of man to satisfy all his desires. This is a proclamation of corruption and degeneration. As it is just to exact the right to satisfaction of the natural wants of each, so is it unjust to sanction every desire and every appetite. It is a question of distinguishing between good and useful wants and evil desires. All wants which promote a healthy life, all instincts which lead to social work, are good. All desires, which damage the health and life of the individual or injure the rights and welfare of society, are bad, and are the procreators of luxury, excessive concupiscence, and often corruption. Between these two extremes there are desires which are more or less indifferent, for example, that of possessing objects of beauty. Certain objects of human desire are harmful in themselves, such as the use of alcoholic liquor and narcotics. Others are only harmful when pushed to excess, such as good living, sexual pleasures, personal adornment, etc. Among the things desired by man, sexual pleasure plays a great part. Thus, when a pasha or a sultan provides himself with a large number of women, this excess is harmful from the social point of view, as it injures the rights of others. I have sufficiently dwelt on this fact elsewhere. I wish only to indicate here, with Schwiedland, how necessary it is to fix the limits between necessities and desires from the point of view of political economy, however relative and subjective these limits may be. FOOTNOTES: [11] "Le forme primitive nella evoluzione economia." [12] "Die psychologischen Grundlagen der Wirtschaft." _Zeitschrift für Sozialwissenschaft_, 1905.