Broadly speaking, the left has brought forth a vast plethora of ideas either intellectually bankrupt, morally depraved, or both. There is, however, one notion they have floated which at its conceptual core is valid: that of sexual liberation. The strictures of the old world regarding sexual behavior may have been appropriate for ages past. They strove to guard against unsupportable pregnancies, as well as the far more serious circumstance of sexually transmitted pathogens. In the times prior to cheaply available contraceptives, the spectre of becoming pregnant stood as a very real and often terrifying concern for women, especially the unwed.
The ravages of diseases such as syphillis were well known, the constraints set forth in those technologically less-capable times making very strong sense from the purely pragmatic point of view.
Of course, one must also consider the less beneficent motivations for such narrow tolerances, the first that comes to mind being that of political control. But let us not dwell on those motives here.
Then there are the misapplications of the otherwise reasonable rules of conduct regarding such matters. Over time, human practices generally tend to become distorted as the original reasons for their establishment become lost. This is especially so when the practices and the reasons for their application are poorly understood. Generations add their notions of what a given tradition or law or edict means in terms of purpose, and let's face it, the average man has far too strong a proclivity to becoming the taskmaster where such "laws" are concerned. What may have once been a very reasonably administered cautionary rule of thumb for one's conduct pursuant to a goal of remaining safe from some real danger, gets twisted into an authoritarian fiat, replete with punishments and other consequences that often dance right past the line of the draconian.
Having grown up with one foot in the old world, I am well familiar with what I considered the grossly distorted views on sexuality by the "west"†. Even as a teenager my feelings on the matter were that this was some sort of terrible misapprehension of the sexual function in human beings. Bearing witness to the bitterness and bile with which the topic was held by a shocking plurality of people left me with the unmistakable sense of something being deeply amiss there, but what did I know when I was 15?
As a young adult, however, my opinions on the matter began to become more clear, viewing the old ethics as some form of malevolent presence in the world. I did at times blame the religious establishments for what I saw as a dolorous circumstance centered on one of the most basic of all human instincts. With further time, I came to the understanding that the original purposes of these behavioral chutes may have been pure enough, as noted above, and that they may have been corrupted in time, as similarly noted.
In the course of those years, the so-called "sexual revolution" lit off and was charging forward as a mighty juggernaut of societal change, and it was a good thing to my eyes. The basic idea that human beings should be free from shame and guilt in the exercise of their sexuality was, and remains, valid. We no longer have quite the same level of concern regarding the risks of sexual activity, though even now overly promiscuous behavior can precipitate some very unpleasant consequences in some cases.
This re-thinking of human sexuality came to us from mostly scientific advances in both medical technologies, pharmaceuticals, and our understandings of basic human sexuality from both the physiological, sociological, and psychological standpoints. But the real impetus of change came from the so-called "left" in the form of books such as "Sex and the Single Girl", bra burnings, and so on down a well known list of events and activities that began to turn the cultural tide away from attitudes that had come to fail in serving humanity well.
To the degree that all this helped people go from muted, and perhaps shame-ridden huffing and puffing in jet-black darkened rooms, to far more ease- and joy-filled interactions between individuals and even groups thereof, the left indeed did the world a very big favor. But as is so common a human error, the "left" wandered from the path of basic sense, continuing to push the envelope as they came to advocate for ever more extreme practices, choices, and notions that may never have otherwise even come into the thoughts of the average individual.
For example, the original and ostensible goal of the "gay movement" was that the world tolerate them such that they would no longer have to live in fear of being beaten, jailed, punished, and so on - a reasonable wish. With the achievement of that goal, rather than being satisfied and living their lives, the next step became the expectation of acceptance, and from there approval, and nowadays, the demand that they be worshipped for what they are and what they do.
Of late, the "left" has expanded upon what was once the "gay agenda" by adding innumerable, made-up orientations, void of meaning or validity, the purpose of which one may only guess. Transexuality, gender fluidity, queerness, and all other manner of utter nonsense is now peddled as reality and everyone is expected to play along with raving idiocies, those refusing to be branded as "threats" to which the "law" appears to be inching toward some measure of punishment.
What began as a well-considered reformulation of general attitudes toward sexuality, has now been distorted in the usual human manners into something unhealthy, and I daresay dangerous in many respects. The physical maiming of children, for example, pursuant to the "correction" of "gender dysphoria", is now in full swing; a burgeoning practice that stands to reap disaster for countless children whose well-meaning, but dangerously and perhaps feloniously ignorant parents, accede to the biochemical, anatomical, and psychological destruction of their own children.
In typical human fashion, the left has wreaked yet more harm by taking a fundamentally sound idea and mangling it into pure harm, perhaps for want of knowing when to stop. Had they wisdom and decency, they'd have halted their advances decades ago after widely establishing the notion that sex wasn't "dirty", but that might yet lead to unwanted consequences in spite of our technological advances. Is this malice or good intentions gone awry? It matters no whit, as the results are the same: the normal and healthy functioning of humans being turned morbid with various taints such as violence, gratuitous homosexuality promoted as a validly virtuous lifestyle choice by those who, had they not been so indoctrinated, would have proceeded into normal and healthy heterosexuality.
Therefore, not quite everything brought the world by the left has been pure disaster, but only very nearly the case. Credit where due, as with criticism.
Be well, be aware, make good decisions, and as always, please accept my best wishes.
† The "west" is by no means the only broad cultural tradition with "hang ups" about sex, but it is the only one to which I feel I can speak with any valid knowledge.
