A Cityless and Countryless World
An Outline of Practical Co-Operative Individualism
Henry Olerich
[A condensed and edited version of the book
originally published by Gilmore & Olerich, Holstein, Iowa, 1893 /
CHAPTER 17 - Sex Relations]
[O]f all the superstitions there is none so wide-spread, none so
deeply rooted in the minds of the masses of your people, as the sex
superstition. It is more barbarously cruel, more blindly
superstitious, more grossly prejudicial, and more in tensely jealous
than any other superstition on earth, whether it be religious,
political, social or industrial. The masses of people seem to hug with
the same fondness the sex superstition, as the contemporaries of the
inquisition hugged that Holy Institution; and, no doubt, the vast
majority of men and women believe as sincerely that your present
sexual slavery is as essential to social harmony as the contemporaries
of the inquisition and of the institution of chattel slavery believed
those institutions absolutely necessary for the highest social
welfare.
[T]here is no subject of human inquiry of which a thorough knowledge
and a right adjustment conduces more to our health, to our well-being,
and therefore to our general happiness than the subject of sex
relations. It often seems to me that parents endeavor to make
ignorance the safeguard of their children s virtue and chastity. As a
rule, neither the relation of parent and child nor the sex relations
are ever openly and honestly discussed in the presence of the whole
family; and when children arrive at the age of puberty, they know
nothing about the evils resulting from sexual abuse, and in a state of
ignorance, the child is apt to follow the promptings of its passions
whether they are normal or still abnormal.
We should learn the truth about all things, including the sex
relation, and the sooner the better. We are never too young to learn.
The sexual function is perhaps as deeply grafted into our nature as
any other function. An improper adjustment of this function entails an
immense amount of physical and mental injury.
Cooperative individualism's] idea and practice of sex relations is,
that whenever, in due time the maternal instinct of procreation
prompts a woman to become a mother, she has the full privilege of
soliciting the love of any man whose propagative association she
desires for that purpose. This privilege, you see, throws the full
control of motherhood in the hands of the women. The man sexually
co-operates only when his assistance is agreeably solicited or
accepted. [W]e can, therefore, have no unwelcome motherhood imposed on
the woman by the man.
[E]ach individual, man, woman and child, has a private apartment in
which each can live all alone, or invite as many companions as he, she
or it may want or can get; but no one ever enters a private apartment
of another for any social purposes without being invited. Of course
the arrangement of this invitation is left altogether with the
individual. The woman invites her companions, both man and woman, if
she so desires; the man does like- wise. If the guest does not desire
to accept the invitation, he or she remains away. All are as much at
liberty to remain away as to respond to the invitation. But, as said
before, no one calls on another in his or her private apartment
without being invited. Hence, no one is bored with visitors, suitors
or sweethearts whose company is not agreeable, or at such times when
he or she prefers to be alone.
[W]e have fathers, but no husbands; mothers, but no wives. No woman
gives herself away to a man for any definite length of time; and no
man gives himself to any woman for a definite length of time.
Consequently, we have no marriages for life. We believe that both
sexes should be completely free of each other at all times. We believe
that no one should have any claim on another, whether male or female,
further than the mutual solicitation of the parties from time to time
desire to elicit. We believe that a woman, in order to live the purest
life, must be free; must enjoy the full privilege of soliciting the
love of any man, or of none, if she so desires. She must be free and
independent, socially, industrially and sexually.
We believe that bearing and rearing offspring constitutes a large
portion of the productive labor of a well-adjusted society, and that
mothers who do that should receive the same compensation for it as is
paid for any other labor. Savages put nearly all the productive labor
off unto their women, and yet the men, as a rule, think that they are
doing nearly all the work which is worth doing. So what you call
civilized man for long ages, shifts the burden of bearing and nursing
offspring off unto their women as though it were little or no labor.
And, in order to accomplish his purpose more effectually, the man
first throws the woman in a sphere of industrial and social dependence
by his superior physical strength, and then makes a contract with her,
which is binding for life, by marrying her, perhaps, when she is young
and inexperienced. No amount of after-knowledge, according to your
opinion, enables her to retract her former steps on this point.
Our highest aim of both men and women, in all our undertakings, is to
live a happy life, and we have learned long ago that we cannot live a
happy life without living a. pure life; for impurity is always
attended with suffering.
Our women enjoy every privilege that our men enjoy. They receive like
compensation for labor; this makes them financially free. They choose
their own occupation, and are eligible to all positions to which the
merit of their fitness can bring them; this makes them free
industrially. They at all times have the privilege of being a mother,
or not. They enjoy the same rights in going to see their suitor as the
man enjoys in going to see his sweetheart. They have the privilege of
inviting into their private apartment any man or woman whomsoever and
whensoever they please. They are not bound by marriage to any
particular man for life. As mothers, they receive the very best of
care and assistance. They are not compelled to defray more of the
expense in the support of their children than their proportionate
share as a member of a family. They receive the same compensation for
being a mother as they would for working in the garden or kitchen or
Com. They can visit and travel wherever they please, and always select
their own companions, whether at home or abroad. They are completely
free in every sense of the word. Of course, our men are just as free
and independent as our women; they are under no obligation further
than what they choose to do. Hence we have no sex monopolization.
Very likely the masses of mankind would, no doubt, regard such a
sexual arrangement a dangerous state of affairs. But when we take the
testimony of history we find that such a fear manifested by the
multitude is of little or no intrinsic worth. The masses of mankind,
burdened with toil and buried in superstition, have always at first
feared the better things that were proposed in the line of progress
and freedom. This fear of danger from the masses, manifested toward a
measure of advance, is not so much a sign that the proposed system is
vicious, especially if the measure tends toward individual freedom, as
it is a sign that those who fear, distrust, and oppose it are yet
immature for it. Their chord of sympathy and respect for others does
not yet vibrate in unison with that high ethical standard. They feel a
real discord, but they locate that discord in the proposed system,
while it really is located in their own immature hearts and minds.
Just in proportion as their hearts and minds are raised to a higher,
broader, and nobler standard, the fear of danger and impracticability
disappears.
You are standing at a point which exactly corresponds with your
intellectual culture. Each person measures his position by his own
ethical standard. But notwithstanding your constant protest against
individual freedom, you are slowly drifting away from the [despot]
toward individualism, and whenever, in time, you stand in our
footsteps, you will see that your present sex relations are as
slavish, despotic and impure as you, at present, look upon the
despotism and injustice of [tyrants].
CONTENTS
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