Key Takeaways
1. Sexual Liberation as Political Control
What I would like to propose here is a paradigm shift of simple but nonetheless revolutionary (or better still counter-revolutionary proportions) by saying what should be obvious to anyone who has visited these web pages and who has had Heather or Lisa ask for his credit card number, namely, that pornography is now and has always been a form of control, financial control.
The core thesis. The book argues that sexual liberation, often presented as freedom, is fundamentally a mechanism for political and financial control. This control exploits human passions, particularly sexual ones, which, when freed from traditional moral constraints, lead to chaos that necessitates external management. This dynamic is not new but has been refined over centuries.
Exploiting passions. The idea is that individuals driven by disordered passions are easily manipulated. By promoting sexual vice, elites can create a population more susceptible to control. This moves beyond simple sexual sin or seduction to a large-scale political mobilization of vice.
Gnostic system. The regime promotes an exoteric truth (sexual liberation is freedom) while operating on an esoteric truth (sexual liberation is control). Those who succumb to their passions are given rationalizations and molded into a political force by those who understand how to manipulate desires.
2. Enlightenment Roots: Weishaupt and Sade
It was Weishaupt’s genius to come up with a system of control that proved effective in the absence of religious sanction.
Illuminati's method. Adam Weishaupt, founder of the Illuminati, developed a system of control ("Seelenspionage" - spying on the soul) based on manipulating passions, borrowing techniques from the Jesuits but stripping them of religious purpose. His goal was a social order free from traditional authority, where man governed himself, but this self-governance was subtly directed by the order's superiors.
Sade's articulation. The Marquis de Sade provided the philosophical justification for sexual liberation as a form of domination. Imprisoned during the French Revolution, he rationalized sexual vice using Enlightenment materialism, arguing that morality was merely fluid dynamics and that "liberation" meant the strong dominating the weak, particularly men dominating women.
Rationalized desire. Sade's writings conflated Enlightenment thought and masturbation, using "science" to justify sexual pleasure and portraying morality as unnecessary. This established a pattern where behavior dictated reason, and force replaced moral guidance, making sexual liberation inherently a form of control.
3. Revolution's Dialectic: Freedom to Control
Freedom followed by Draconian control became the dialectic of all revolutions, and, in this regard, the sexual revolution was no exception.
Chaos necessitates control. Enlightenment ideals of liberty, when applied without the moral framework of religion, led to the suppression of morals and subsequent social chaos. This chaos, exemplified by the French Revolution, inevitably created a need for stringent social control to prevent society from disintegrating.
Sexual revolution contemporaneous. The sexual revolution is inseparable from political revolution. Once passions were freed from traditional moral law, they had to be subjected to a new, often "scientific," form of control. The French Revolution made this dynamic obvious, inspiring figures like Auguste Comte to seek order through sociology.
Inversion of values. Revolutionaries adopted the worldview of figures like St. Augustine, who saw vice as slavery, but reversed the values. For Sade, perpetual unrest caused by unruly passions was good because it fueled necessary insurrection. What one called freedom, the other called bondage, but both understood the link between morals and political order/disorder.
4. Psychology as a Tool of Manipulation
Just as Freud’s unacknowledged appropriation of Nietzsche reveals the true source and real meaning of the Oedipus Complex, so his unacknowledged appropriation of Illuminist psychotechniques reveals that at its root psychoanalysis was not medicine or therapy but a form of psychic control.
Psychoanalysis as control. Sigmund Freud's psychoanalysis, particularly the Oedipus Complex, is presented not as a scientific discovery but as a rationalization of personal sexual issues (like his affair with his sister-in-law) and a tool for psychic control. Borrowing from Illuminist techniques, psychoanalysis used confession-like sessions to gain power over patients, often by manipulating guilt and passions.
Behaviorism's promise. John B. Watson's behaviorism, influenced by mechanistic views of man, aimed for the "prediction and control of behavior." Seeing man as an "organic machine" shaped solely by environment, behaviorism offered a technology of psychic control, appealing to those who sought to manage society without traditional morals.
Reich's sex-pol. Wilhelm Reich explicitly linked sexual liberation and political revolution ("sex-pol"). He argued that sexual repression fueled totalitarianism and that promoting orgasm and sexual freedom was the key to combating "mysticism" (religion) and creating revolutionaries. His work became a blueprint for using sexual deviance for political effect.
5. Advertising and the Engineering of Desire
What began as the bondage of sin eventually became financial control and what became accepted as a financial transaction has been forged into a form of political control.
Bernays's insight. Edward Bernays, nephew of Freud and father of public relations, applied psychological principles to mass manipulation. He understood that by appealing to and exploiting people's passions, particularly sexual ones, he could influence their behavior for financial and political gain.
Invisible governors. Bernays promoted the idea of "invisible governors" – elites who understand mass psychology and "pull the wires which control the public mind." Advertising became a primary tool for this, replacing traditional authorities (parents, religion) with "science" and brand names to create a homogenized population of consumers.
Addiction as freedom. Campaigns like the "torches of freedom" (promoting women smoking) presented addiction as liberation. This technique, refined by behaviorism's understanding of conditioned reflexes, associated products with sexual desire, turning consumers into subjects of control through the manipulation of their passions.
6. The Failed Soviet Sexual Revolution
The sexual revolution was over as well, but there would still be one final spectacular act that would gather all of its disparate threads in one hand before it expired of its own wretched excess.
State-sponsored liberation. The Russian Revolution, particularly under figures like Alexandra Kollontai, attempted to implement sexual liberation as state policy, legalizing divorce and abortion and promoting free love. This was seen as necessary to dismantle the "bourgeois" family and traditional morality.
Chaos and reaction. However, this state-sponsored sexual revolution led to widespread social chaos, including millions of orphans, epidemic venereal disease, and increased prostitution. The resulting breakdown of social order forced the Soviet authorities, under Stalin, to reverse course and reimpose stricter sexual norms, effectively ending the experiment.
Disillusionment. Figures like Kollontai, who had championed "winged Eros," became disillusioned as they saw the exploitative nature of relationships persist and the revolution fail to deliver on its promise of true sexual freedom. The experience demonstrated that sexual liberation without a moral framework led to bondage and social disintegration.
7. Weimar Decadence and Reaction
Homosexual rights, as practiced by Jewish homosexual advocates like Magnus Hirschfeld, was made to order for Hitler’s rise to power, a rise to power that was based, at least until 1933, to a large extent on the revulsion the German population at large felt at the sexual excesses of the Weimar Republic.
Sexual science as cultural destabilization. Magnus Hirschfeld's Institute for Sex Science in Berlin became a symbol of Weimar decadence, promoting sexual liberation, including homosexuality, under the guise of "sexual science." This challenged traditional morality and contributed to a sense of social breakdown.
Exploitation by Nazis. The sexual excesses of the Weimar Republic, epitomized by figures like Hirschfeld, generated widespread revulsion among the German population. Adolf Hitler cynically exploited this resentment, linking sexual decadence ("Kulturbolschewismus") with Jewish influence to fuel anti-Semitism and consolidate his power.
Persecution and irony. While the Nazi leadership itself included prominent homosexuals (like Ernst Roehm), they publicly persecuted homosexuals and used accusations of homosexuality to eliminate political opponents, including Catholic priests. This demonstrated how sexual issues could be manipulated for political gain, even by those engaging in the same behaviors.
8. Post-War Eugenics and Foundation Power
Population control, after serving as the vehicle for subjugating enemies at home, became the instrument for the same sort of subjugation abroad.
Eugenics rebranded. After being discredited by Nazi association, the eugenics movement rebranded itself as "population control" and gained significant funding from wealthy foundations like the Rockefellers. The goal remained the same: controlling the reproduction of certain groups, particularly racial minorities and the poor, often framed as a solution to social problems.
Targeting demographics. The WASP elite, concerned about "differential fertility" (their declining birth rates compared to rising rates among groups like Catholics and blacks), used foundations to promote contraception. This was seen as a way to maintain their demographic and political dominance.
Global strategy. Population control became a cornerstone of U.S. foreign policy (NSSM 200), using international aid and multilateral organizations (UN, World Bank) as fronts to impose birth quotas on developing nations. This was a form of "contraceptive imperialism," aimed at weakening potential rivals by limiting their population growth.
9. Civil Rights as a Front for Sexual Politics
The Negro was needed as a front for sexual liberation.
Race and sexual liberation. The Civil Rights Movement, particularly in its later stages, became intertwined with the sexual revolution. For some white liberals and radicals, the Negro became a symbol of sexual liberation and a means to challenge traditional "white" (Christian) morality.
Ghetto pathology romanticized. Figures like Jack Kerouac romanticized the sexual pathology of the urban ghetto ("spade kicks") as a form of freedom from bourgeois constraints. This view, adopted by the Beat and later hippie movements, proposed "black" mores as an alternative to Christian sexual ethics.
Compromised leadership. The Moynihan Report, which linked black poverty to family breakdown, was resisted by civil rights leaders partly because it highlighted sexual issues they were unwilling to address honestly, often due to their own compromised sexual lives. This resistance perpetuated family pathology in the name of protecting sexual freedom.
10. Encounter Groups and Institutional Destruction
Encounter groups were simply the most effective instrument science had yet devised to manage social change through the manipulation of peer pressure.
Psychological warfare origins. Encounter groups (sensitivity training, T-groups) originated in post-WWII psychological warfare research, funded by government and foundations. They were designed to manage social change through peer pressure and subtle manipulation, often in controlled environments like corporations or institutions.
Targeting religious life. These techniques were applied to religious orders, like the Immaculate Heart nuns, under the guise of "renewal" and "innovation." By fostering emotional openness and challenging traditional authority and vows, encounter groups contributed to a mass exodus from religious life.
Stealthy manipulation. Encounter groups, despite claims of being non-directive, were a form of Illuminist control. They exploited the human desire for intimacy and self-discovery, often leading to sexual relationships, which in turn undermined religious commitment and traditional morality, serving the agenda of those who funded the experiments.
11. The Triumph of Secular Humanism
The cultural revolution was now on, but in keeping with the tenor of the times, it was a covert war between ostensible allies in the anti-Communist crusade.
Legal and cultural shift. The period from the 1960s saw a rapid legal and cultural shift away from traditional Christian morality towards secular humanism, particularly in sexual matters. Supreme Court decisions (Roth, Griswold, Roe v. Wade) decriminalized contraception, abortion, and pornography, often influenced by "scientific" findings from figures like Kinsey.
Covert warfare. This shift was not a spontaneous uprising but a result of a covert cultural war waged by a coalition of secularists, liberal Protestants, and Jews, often funded by foundations. They used psychological warfare techniques and media influence to dismantle the authority of the Catholic Church and traditional morality.
Secularization as control. The goal was to move areas of life, especially sexual morality, from the realm of divine law to "opinion," making them subject to manipulation by those controlling the media and social science. This created a society where individuals, freed from traditional constraints, became more susceptible to external control through the manipulation of their passions.
12. The End Result: Bondage and Chaos
Liberation was slavery at best; more often than not, it was death too.
Passion's tyranny. The promise of sexual liberation proved to be a mirage. Freed from rational and moral control, passions became tyrannical masters, leading to personal bondage, addiction, and self-destruction, as seen in figures like Tom Schiro and Bettie Page.
Social disintegration. Extrapolated to the cultural level, unchecked passions led to social chaos, family breakdown, and increased violence. This chaos, in turn, provided the pretext for the imposition of draconian forms of external control, often by the very forces that promoted the initial "liberation."
Invisible chains. The ultimate form of control is one that is not recognized as such. By equating sexual license with freedom, the regime creates a population that defends its own enslavement, becoming subjects of manipulation by those who understand how to exploit their deepest desires for political and financial gain.
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Review Summary
Libido Dominandi receives mixed reviews, with many praising its ambitious scope and thought-provoking thesis on sexual liberation as a form of political control. Supporters find it insightful and well-researched, while critics argue it lacks proper editing, coherence, and historical accuracy. Some readers appreciate Jones' extensive examples and chronological approach, while others find the writing repetitive and disorganized. Despite its flaws, many consider it an important work for understanding the relationship between sexuality and political power in Western society.
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