Just a few days after I posted a report about the French Resistance to the Empire, a really sad news came out of France: Alain Soral, the leader of the movement "Equality and Reconciliation" (E&R) was involved in a disgusting and, frankly, pathetic scandal mixing race, ideology and sex. The story just broke in the French media, the parties disagree on a number of things and Soral is threatening to sue, but between the reports published by the Zionist press in France (JssNews; Elfassiscoopblog) and what was published by the official E&R site, there are a few more or less established facts: for a while Alain Soral had a, quote, "virtual affair", unquote, with an African model called Binti. This "virtual affair" involved sending each other nude "selife" photos. Then things went south, they began insulting each other by text messages. Soral's insults included racial ones. Now, the photos and the insults have become public. Frankly, I don't feel any inclinations to describe or analyze this psycho-sexual sewer, but those of you interested in the ugly details just need to click on the links above.
Soral is now threatening several lawsuits and he promises to release a video where he explains it all. Maybe. But unless he tells us that the photos and text messages are all fake, there is nothing he can tell me which would make me change the conclusion to which I have already come: Soral has serious sexual problems.
This is hardly surprising, to be honest. Soral has always said that he was a "dragueur" which in modern politically-correct French refers to somebody who likes to pick up girls. In plain English this simply means that Soral was sexually promiscuous. The poor man even wrote a book about that. Apparently Soral married a lady named "Maylis Bourdenx" (or "Maylis Bonnet") in 1996. Whatever may be the case, married or nor, Soral is yet another example of the fact that the West is, truly, the most sexually dysfunctional society on the planet and that western hetero-sex is every bit as dysfunctional as its homo-sex.
The number of people involved in some kind of sexual scandals simply blows my mind. From Anthony Weiner to Bill Clinton to the innumerable Latin priests in involved in high profile sex scandals, it seems that this phenomenon is just an integral part of our daily lives. Because it is, of course.
First, let's get one basic myth out of the way. Sexual promiscuity is not a sign of success" but a sign of frustration. Why do I say so? Simple! Think about it yourself: would you change cars or houses or jobs or places of residence if you were happy where you are? Of course not. Folks who constantly have different sexual partners are just seeking to attain a satisfaction which inevitably eludes them. If they had a truly sexually satisfying partner - why would they ever bother looking for more?!
This is why sexual promiscuity is to sex what alcoholism is to wine: not an enjoyment of, or appreciation for, but an addiction which, as any other addiction, is fueled by internal emptiness. Roger Water perfectly described this feeling in his song "Empty Spaces":
What shall we use to fill the empty spaces
Where waves of hunger roar?
Shall we set out across this sea of faces
In search of more and more applause?
Shall we buy a new guitar?
Shall we drive a more powerful car?
Shall we work straight through the night?
Shall we get into fights,
Leave the lights on,
Drop bombs,
Do tours of the East,
Contract diseases,
Bury bones,
Break up homes,
Send flowers by phone,
Take to drink,
Go to shrinks,
Give up meat,
Rarely sleep,
Keep people as pets,
Train dogs,
Raise rats,
Fill the attic with cash,
Bury treasure,
Store up leisure,
But never relax at all
With our backs to the Wall?
Where waves of hunger roar?
Shall we set out across this sea of faces
In search of more and more applause?
Shall we buy a new guitar?
Shall we drive a more powerful car?
Shall we work straight through the night?
Shall we get into fights,
Leave the lights on,
Drop bombs,
Do tours of the East,
Contract diseases,
Bury bones,
Break up homes,
Send flowers by phone,
Take to drink,
Go to shrinks,
Give up meat,
Rarely sleep,
Keep people as pets,
Train dogs,
Raise rats,
Fill the attic with cash,
Bury treasure,
Store up leisure,
But never relax at all
With our backs to the Wall?
Here is a fantastic live version of this song by Roger Waters and Bryan Adams (at his very best):
These "empty spaces"did not come out of nowhere. They are the direct result of a lifestyle which completely ignores the basic needs of our body, mind and soul. This is true for the food we eat, the air we breath, the exercise we don't get, the human feelings we don't get to show, the human relations we don't get to experience and, of course, from a completely mistaken notion of what "good and satisfying sex" truly is. There is so much ego, and pseudo-science, invested in this that I suspect that the true consequences of our sexual inanity will be the last we will look at. We will stop polluting our planet long before we stop polluting our bodies, minds and souls (and God knows I don't think we will stop polluting our planet anytime soon).
To be honest, I feel sorry for Soral. I know that he had a terrible childhood and that his youth was spent with the most degenerate social groups possible. And I cannot blame him for his "empty spaces" and his desire to fill them with something, even if this something is as pathetic and sterile as a "virtual relationship" via phone and text messages. But where Soral is a total idiot is that he should have know that this kind of "lifestyle" would blow up in his face. Did he really think that he could send picture of him nude to a young and poor African immigrant before they would end up in hands ready to pay top dollar for it? The scary thing is that Soral is very far from being stupid, and that tells you how compulsive and totally out of control his sexual frustrations are.
He reminds me of Scott Ritter, another clearly very intelligent man, who also was caught in acts of such an extreme stupidity as to appear completely impossible. And yet that solid and highly principled Marine specialized in, of all things, intelligence (!) was caught exposing his genitals via webcam to a police officer impersonating a 15 year old child. Again, besides being a clear sign of sexual frustration and pathology, how utterly stupid is that?
The very first rule for anybody involved in any public affairs nowadays is to live a squeaky clean live, especially in sex related matters. The second rule should be, and if you really cannot engage in "normal" (i.e. socially approved) sex, then don't do that anywhere near any electronic device. Soral and Ritter both knew that. And yet they did it. Does that really tell us anything about them? Are we better? Stronger? Smarter? Healthier?
I don't think so.
Soral and Ritter are not "perverts" - that explanation is just too easy and really it explains nothing. I submit a very different explanation: like all of us, Soral and Ritter have a specific human nature which is highly susceptible to its social environment and when that environment fosters dysfunction most humans will end up displaying pathological and compulsive behavior. Being an Orthodox Christian, I also believe that our current human nature is a "fallen" one, and that our real/original human nature was lost as a result of Adam's sin and that, in turn, tells me that asceticism and resulting self-control are not "luxuries for monastics", but a vital necessity for every single human being. But even if we set asides religious arguments, I think that there is absolutely overwhelming evidence of the fact that most, the vast majority really, of people in the West are sexually frustrated and miserable. Our "modern" and "progressive" society has completely failed to yield its promise of sexual satisfaction. Oh sure, it does serve us cheap and readily available "fast sex" just as it serves us "fast food", but just as fast food is garbage for our bodies, fast sex is garbage to our bodies, minds and souls.
Look at Soral's body: the guy is 56 years old, yet he is "healthy as an ox" as the Russian expression goes, clearly in a fantastic shape. But psychologically decades of "fast sex" have made him "psychologically morbidly obese". If anything, the Soral fiasco proves, yet again, that in a health-obsessed society we ignore the needs of our mind and soul only at great peril to ourselves.
What will happen next?
In theory the sexual problems of Alain Soral say nothing about his views or about the Resistance to Empire he embodies today. That is in theory. In reality, this is a massive political faceplant which Soral's enemies will use and exploit to the maximum. After all, for them it is much more fun to focus on Soral's sexual problems than to focus on his ideas. Sure, his hardcore supporters will probably forgive him for letting his frustration endanger the future of the Resistance to Empire in France, and it's not like Francois Hollande or Nicholas Sarkozy are any less sexually dysfunctional.
The one issue which nobody will look into is why is it that men who apparently have it all are clearly so out of whack sexually? Feminists will tell us that men think with their genitals and not their brains, progressives will condemn a repressive moral order, conservatives will deplore the lack of "Christian morals" and nobody will ever dare ask whether a satisfying and fulfilling sexual life is possible and, if yes, in what circumstances?
In conclusion, and just for the record, I want to say this. I have been accused by some of being "anti-gay" for my clearly stated belief that homosexuality is a personality disorder, a psycho-sexual pathology. I hope that the above will convince everybody that I make no inherent difference between modern homo-sex and hetero-sex: to me their are all equally pathological and contrary to our human nature. When I look in the world I live I conclude that the Church is correct in saying that there is only one form of sex which is "right": sex in the context of a heterosexual marriage of adults. This form of sex does not guarantee sexual satisfaction, but at least it makes it possible. Sexual promiscuity - whether hetero or homo - makes it impossible not because some bishops decided that, but because they correctly identified the needs and characteristics of our human nature.
By the way, in Greek the word "sin" (ἁμαρτία) means "missing the target" or a "failure to reach the goal". Sin is not pissing off some morally rigid god sitting on a cloud who spends his time monitoring our sexual lives. "Sin" is simply not realizing our true nature and our true potential. Sin is inducing misery in ourselves, whether we realize it or not. Sin is ignoring our nature and mistreating ourselves.
To be honest, I feel sorry for Soral. I know that he had a terrible childhood and that his youth was spent with the most degenerate social groups possible. And I cannot blame him for his "empty spaces" and his desire to fill them with something, even if this something is as pathetic and sterile as a "virtual relationship" via phone and text messages. But where Soral is a total idiot is that he should have know that this kind of "lifestyle" would blow up in his face. Did he really think that he could send picture of him nude to a young and poor African immigrant before they would end up in hands ready to pay top dollar for it? The scary thing is that Soral is very far from being stupid, and that tells you how compulsive and totally out of control his sexual frustrations are.
He reminds me of Scott Ritter, another clearly very intelligent man, who also was caught in acts of such an extreme stupidity as to appear completely impossible. And yet that solid and highly principled Marine specialized in, of all things, intelligence (!) was caught exposing his genitals via webcam to a police officer impersonating a 15 year old child. Again, besides being a clear sign of sexual frustration and pathology, how utterly stupid is that?
The very first rule for anybody involved in any public affairs nowadays is to live a squeaky clean live, especially in sex related matters. The second rule should be, and if you really cannot engage in "normal" (i.e. socially approved) sex, then don't do that anywhere near any electronic device. Soral and Ritter both knew that. And yet they did it. Does that really tell us anything about them? Are we better? Stronger? Smarter? Healthier?
I don't think so.
Soral and Ritter are not "perverts" - that explanation is just too easy and really it explains nothing. I submit a very different explanation: like all of us, Soral and Ritter have a specific human nature which is highly susceptible to its social environment and when that environment fosters dysfunction most humans will end up displaying pathological and compulsive behavior. Being an Orthodox Christian, I also believe that our current human nature is a "fallen" one, and that our real/original human nature was lost as a result of Adam's sin and that, in turn, tells me that asceticism and resulting self-control are not "luxuries for monastics", but a vital necessity for every single human being. But even if we set asides religious arguments, I think that there is absolutely overwhelming evidence of the fact that most, the vast majority really, of people in the West are sexually frustrated and miserable. Our "modern" and "progressive" society has completely failed to yield its promise of sexual satisfaction. Oh sure, it does serve us cheap and readily available "fast sex" just as it serves us "fast food", but just as fast food is garbage for our bodies, fast sex is garbage to our bodies, minds and souls.
Look at Soral's body: the guy is 56 years old, yet he is "healthy as an ox" as the Russian expression goes, clearly in a fantastic shape. But psychologically decades of "fast sex" have made him "psychologically morbidly obese". If anything, the Soral fiasco proves, yet again, that in a health-obsessed society we ignore the needs of our mind and soul only at great peril to ourselves.
What will happen next?
In theory the sexual problems of Alain Soral say nothing about his views or about the Resistance to Empire he embodies today. That is in theory. In reality, this is a massive political faceplant which Soral's enemies will use and exploit to the maximum. After all, for them it is much more fun to focus on Soral's sexual problems than to focus on his ideas. Sure, his hardcore supporters will probably forgive him for letting his frustration endanger the future of the Resistance to Empire in France, and it's not like Francois Hollande or Nicholas Sarkozy are any less sexually dysfunctional.
The one issue which nobody will look into is why is it that men who apparently have it all are clearly so out of whack sexually? Feminists will tell us that men think with their genitals and not their brains, progressives will condemn a repressive moral order, conservatives will deplore the lack of "Christian morals" and nobody will ever dare ask whether a satisfying and fulfilling sexual life is possible and, if yes, in what circumstances?
In conclusion, and just for the record, I want to say this. I have been accused by some of being "anti-gay" for my clearly stated belief that homosexuality is a personality disorder, a psycho-sexual pathology. I hope that the above will convince everybody that I make no inherent difference between modern homo-sex and hetero-sex: to me their are all equally pathological and contrary to our human nature. When I look in the world I live I conclude that the Church is correct in saying that there is only one form of sex which is "right": sex in the context of a heterosexual marriage of adults. This form of sex does not guarantee sexual satisfaction, but at least it makes it possible. Sexual promiscuity - whether hetero or homo - makes it impossible not because some bishops decided that, but because they correctly identified the needs and characteristics of our human nature.
By the way, in Greek the word "sin" (ἁμαρτία) means "missing the target" or a "failure to reach the goal". Sin is not pissing off some morally rigid god sitting on a cloud who spends his time monitoring our sexual lives. "Sin" is simply not realizing our true nature and our true potential. Sin is inducing misery in ourselves, whether we realize it or not. Sin is ignoring our nature and mistreating ourselves.
Oh, and one more thing: I hear the voices saying "this blog should be about the Ukraine or politics - not Christian fundamentalist propaganda!!". Well, for one thing, it's my blog and I do with it whatever the hell I please. Second, there is a direct connection here. Russian society is in many ways at least as sexually dysfunctional as the western one. It has promiscuity, prostitution, marital violence, pornography, mass abortions and even homosexuality. But there comes the huge difference: in Russia most of the political and intellectual elites deplore that and openly advocate a return to a very different social order. In the West the political and intellectual elites not only do not denounce these phenomena, they declare them as fully normal. True, in the USA there is a seizable "Christian" minority which opposes the social consequences of the western "slouching to Gomorrah" but it is deeply reactionary and never looks at the true causes of what it denounces. So while Russia is post-Communist, she is not, like the West, post-Christian and while the Russian people have yet to decide what their culture should stand for, they at least have decided that the Western model does not inspire them any more. So if today Russia draws the line at "gay pride" parades in Moscow, this is only a beginning, an obvious point of consensus. But unless the Empire is successful in its goal of "regime change in Russia", this timid first step will be followed by many more.
I did not write all of the above to convince anybody that Russia is right. After all, I personally don't accept the notion of universal values and to each his/her own and "live and let live" also applies to societies. If the folks in the West are happy, fine - let them enjoy themselves and who cares that to me the look miserable and frustrated? My main goal is to bring to your attention the very deep social, cultural, religious and civilizational tensions between the post-Christian capitalist West and post-Communist Russia and to illustrate why the West has so little appeal to Russians. What you make of my diagnosis is up to you.
Kind regards,
The Saker
PS: for those of you interested by a truly traditional Russian Orthodox view of the the West, please read the transcript of Alexander Solzhenitsyn's 1983 Templeton Address, one of the most important, and therefore most ignored, speeches he ever made.
