Camile Paglia-Nature rewards energy and aggression.

 

Camile Paglia's sharp insights on capitalism, Marx, and more
Apr 14, 2022 · 2 mins read

Introduction. Camile Paglia is an interesting thinker, controversial writer, and a professor at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. In this Memo, discover her conversation-provoking ideas about Marx, beauty, sexual desire, and much more

1 .Society vs Nature: "Society is an artificial construction, a defence against nature’s power. Without society, we would be storm-tossed on the barbarous sea that is nature. Society is a system of inherited forms reducing our humiliating passivity to nature."

3. On Marx: "Marxism is a flight from the magic of person and the mystique of hierarchy. It distorts the character of western culture, which is based on charismatic power of person." Marxism fails because the "riot of individualism" is impossible to contain.

4. Capitalism rebels against nature: "The teeming multiplicity of capitalist products is a...correction of nature." Nature has no concept of bifurcation, division, or shape - it is pure pulsating energy. To turn nature into shapely capitalist products is to control and charmify it.

5.The West invented the gun even though China invented gunpowder centuries ago as the Western mind is more interested in "phallic...projection." The western personality invented the projectile weapon to turn the chaos of nature into order - instead of merely coexisting with it.

6. On beauty: "Beauty is our weapon against nature; by it we make objects, giving them limit, symmetry, proportion. Beauty halts and freezes the melting flux of nature." Beauty is one of humanity's great tools - it makes the world more predictable, palatable, and humane.

7. Desire comes from what's hidden, not what's revealed: "Desire is intensified by ritual limitations. Hence the mask, harness, and chains of sadomasochism." This is also why "there is nothing less erotic than a nudist colony."

8.What does nature reward? On the aggressive underbelly of life: "Sperm are miniature assault troops, and the ovum is a solitary citadel that must be breached. Weak or passive sperm just sit there like dead ducks. Nature rewards energy and aggression."

9. Is freedom our dream - or an unbearable nightmare? Paglia writes: "When the prestige of state and religion is low, men are free, but they find freedom intolerable and seek new ways to enslave themselves, through drugs or depression." Do humans need some chains to live at all?

10. On sexual freedom: "Whenever sexual freedom is sought or achieved, sadomasochism will not be far behind." Sexual freedom leads to sadomasochism because any escape from pain and bondage creates a new appetite for pain and bondage.