Homosexuality of an individual may have various interpretations, but at the end it is always a diagnosis to a society. Ljubodrag Simonovic explains all the “hows” and “whys”.

Ljubodrag Simonovic: The Last Revolution

Contents

The Last Revolution -- Chapter Ten

Homosexuality

(Translated from Serbian by Igor Barjaktarević)

In contemporary capitalism, movements are created of growing numbers of homosexuals, which would, according to Marx's “humanism-naturalism”, fall under the classification of degenerated sociability and, consequently, degenerated naturalness. Homosexuality does not have to do with the “deranged” biological nature of man (man is a heterosexual being and has an organic predisposition for pederasty), but rather with the ruling social relations and the corresponding value challenges. It is not about the “sick man”, but a sick society. We should, therefore, not treat people, but create a “healthy society” (Fromm), in which healthy people could develop. Homosexuality is a concrete social (historical) phenomenon which is conditioned by the nature of the ruling order. It is a form in which a certain value system manifests itself, which governs relations between the sexes and as such is a concrete type of social functioning. The ancient homosexual Eros has had a significantly different nature from the capitalistically conditioned homosexuality. The homosexual community of today is one of the forms in which capitalistically degenerated sociability manifests itself. The development of homosexual relations corresponds to the disintegration of the family as a humanized natural community and conversion of marriage into an economic community. Homosexual communities receive the legitimacy of “sociability” not in relation to family as a humanized natural community, but in relation to the desperate loneliness created by capitalism. Homosexual community is the ultimate form of capitalistically degenerated family, whereas the development of pederasty contributes to removing the possibility of making the family a humanized natural community. At the same time, by destroying man as a natural and human being, capitalism destroys authentic sociability, sterilizing Eros and, thereby, destroying the society’s capacity for biological reproduction. “Reproduction of society” has become a segment of destructive capitalist reproduction, which is, like all other areas of life, based on the principle of “Money does not stink!”. Artificial insemination, the sale of semen materials, the rental of uteruses, the sale of children – these are all legal and legitimate forms of capitalist reproduction. Capitalism draws into its existential and value orbit the increasingly pernicious consequences that it produces, assigning them an institutional status and turning them into a means for its own development.

In light of the fact that capitalism destroys man as a natural and human being, the goal of marriage should be the survival of humanity as a humanized and natural community. Marriage is an institutionalized community of woman and man that provides an opportunity for a stable biological reproduction of society and for raising children. When marriage is devoid of the life-creating (fecund) dimension, it loses its primary reason for existence. At the same time, without the life-creating dimension, marriage becomes a shell in which it is possible to insert the most diverse content. If we accept homosexuality as a basis for establishing a marital community, then why not permit marriage between brothers, between sisters, between mothers and their daughters, fathers and sons, grandmothers and granddaughters, grandfathers and grandsons…? The importance of family-relationships lies above all in its prospects for biological survival, i.e., it is grounded in the fact that incest leads to the physical and mental degeneration of offspring. In homosexual relationships, which do not have the life-creating character, this problem does not exist. By having homosexuality serves as a fundamental principle of marriage, all boundaries fall and, with them, the traditional notion of family ties that are based on heterosexual relationships. Furthermore, the historical dimension of man is being abolished, as is, in that context, the humanist and existential vision of the future of mankind. The question is not only what the society will look like, but how its very survival will be possible if it is converted into a population of gays and lesbians? To this question capitalism cannot find a humanistic answer, but only a technological one: the artificial insemination, meaning a mechanical production of children. In the contemporary world, homosexuality has become an anti-existential principle. It is one of the means for destroying mankind’s reproductive capability and for sterilizing society. Homosexuality appears today as a phenomenon befitting a world that is collapsing biologically and destroying man as a natural, social and historical being.

The true nature of “gay rights” can be seen in their relation to the rights of children. What is “humane” about contesting the basic needs and rights of children? In place of the struggle to preserve family and, in that context, the right of children to have both parents and their love and care, it is insisted that “homosexuals have the right to adopt children.” At the same time, the community of children and same-sex “parents” becomes a model for “the family of the future”. In that way, the dialectics of erotic relations between man and woman, which is the basis for the healthy development of children’s sexuality (personality), is destroyed. Finally, why should children have parents at all? Why not establish farms for producing and raising of children – as suggested by Plato and as practiced by the Nazis? Adoption of children is not only a way of “solving the problem” of children without parents, but has become the fundamental justification for homosexual marriage. The adoption solution is built upon the consequences created by capitalism as the epitome of an inhumane order, namely, based up on children‘s basic human needs going unaddressed. Adoption implies that children are without their natural parents, that is, they have been denied the right to live with their biological fathers and mothers. In the identity documents of Western countries, instead of referring to a “father” and “mother”, increasingly, reference is being made to “the first and second parent.” One set of people “produces” and abandons children, while another adopts them. Adoption of children has become a commodity-exchange and a mechanical operation. Children are bought and sold as things. There is a “warranty period” like for any other commodity. Together with the rejection of the rights of children to have parents, humanist pedagogy is rejected, that is, the pedagogical system based on an effort to humanize the natural human being by means of family as a humanized natural community. At the same time, depriving children of parental love and respect is the cause of the most serious mental illnesses and the worst forms of social pathology.

The fundamental right of children is their right to a future, which means their right to a humane world and a healthy environment. Meeting the needs of children as human and natural beings has become a matter of mankind’s survival. The efforts of the most reactionary capitalist groups to reduce the planet’s population to fewer than one billion people include sterilization and the extermination of “surplus people”. In this context, children are no longer viewed as “the greatest treasure”, but, rather, as the greatest threat to the survival of mankind. The future is not perceived as being determined by the creative potential of man and the humanist vision of the world, but is premised on the “fact” that natural resources are limited and that the number of people on the planet should be adjusted to that. Instead of striving to eradicate the consumer frenzy that dominates the most developed capitalist countries of the West and is the main cause of the increasingly dramatic deterioration of the planet, ever-louder are becoming the demands for the extermination of billions of “surplus people”, which predominantly means children. By destroying children, capitalism destroys the life force of humanity and transforms human society into a world of physically and mentally degenerate Methuselahs.

In the homosexual relationship, the human body loses its genuine erotic dimension and is instrumentalized in an unnatural and inhuman way. It becomes an object of sexual exhibitionism in which the most important role is given to body parts that are unrelated to any genuine erotic nature, and especially alien to the life-creating nature of man. It is no longer a humanized natural relation, but a denaturalized and therefore dehumanized relation in which the body of the “partner” is reduced to a means for achieving an orgasm. Penetration of the penis into the anus is a painful and injurious violence against the “partner’s” organism and (as with “oral sex”) a degrading form of “sexual intercourse”. The psychological basis of homosexuality is not the emancipated human beings’ need for love, but the fear of loneliness, of rejection, of uncertainty… Instead of relations of equality between the “partners”, subjugation and submission are established, which means a sado-masochistic relationship that is a direct expression of the position of man in capitalism as a class order based on the principle of “Trample or be trampled!”. The need for domination and subjugation becomes a basis for the dialectic of “sex play”. “Inherited” is the model of social relations that is the basis for the ruling relation between women and men, in which women are reduced to an object of sexual humiliation.

Striving for the realization of man as a human being goes far beyond the (homo)sexual dimension of man. The insisting on homosexuality as a central issue determining human identity becomes a means for mutilation of man’s humanity and for producing “one-dimensional” (Marcuse) man. Being human is reduced to a certain type of sexuality. To be “someone” means to be either a “gay” or a “macho-man”. It becomes the main form of social affirmation of man, removing other forms of affirmation of man as a sovereign being. In this way man is abolished as a historic, visionary and freedom-loving being. The “gay movement” is based on a reduced humanity and a degenerated sociability. Man achieves his human selfhood and sociality by way of his sexuality, rather than through his civil status, class and national self-awareness, family, culture, political and religious beliefs… “Pride” is not linked to the struggle for man’s freedom, national survival and social justice, to preserving nature and mankind… but to (homo)sexuality, which has an anti-existential character. Homosexuals are not “proud” because they are humans, but because they are “gay” and “lesbian”. Sexuality is no longer a personal matter, but gets a spectacular public promotion. The need for sociability is reduced to a sexist exhibitionism that has a banal circus-like character. The reduced humanness of today is of a substantially different nature from that of the past. It manifests itself in relation to an increasingly real possibility of destruction of the world and in relation to the creative powers of man, who is able to abolish class society and create a new world.

“The struggle for gay rights” indicates the hypocrisy of the capitalist world. Why is the “struggle for gay rights” deprived of the humanist and visionary dimensions? Why don’t those who call upon “humanity” for the sake of homosexuals, not fight against the inhumane and for a humane world for all? “The struggle for gay rights” does not have a humanistic, but rather a political character, and contributes to the preservation of the existing world. Gay “Pride Parades” are the highest manifestations of “democracy”, and ”respect for the rights of homosexuals” the highest affirmation of the ruling order’s “humanity”. By imposing the issue of “exercising the rights of homosexuals”, any questions concerning the survival of humanity and the freedom of man are removed from public awareness: the biological degradation of the people, the ruthless plundering of the working class, dying from disease, hunger and thirst, drugs, the criminalization of society, the rise of the police state, illiteracy, loneliness, the destruction of entire peoples by the “democratic” West, experiments with genetic material, production of the increasingly potent means for mass destruction, the “spraying” of the population and land, mental illnesses, destruction of soil and living organisms with genetically modified plants, breakdowns of nuclear facilities, suicide, violence, increasingly expensive medical services and an increasingly destructive use of pharmaceuticals, the growing social disparities and the growing misery of the working class, children and retirees, an increasingly polluted environment, toxic food, the capitalists’ monopoly of the media… At the same time, “the struggle for gay rights” becomes a way to install division among people based on their sexual orientation, which works to destroy those forms of sociality (civil, national and class integration) that provide opportunities for man to survive and to achieve freedom.

The matter of (homo)sexuality can be understood in a humanistic way only in the context of realization of an integral humanity of man, from the perspective of the struggle for the preservation of life on Earth and the creation of a humane world. The critical distance between capitalism and a humane society also implies a critical distance between homosexuality and man as a humanized natural (life-creating) and social being. On this basis homosexuals as emancipated people could contribute to the development of social relations that would provide the ability to overcome (homo)sexual one-dimensionality. A distinction must be made between gay people who are emancipated human beings and those whose view of the world and the future is based on their sexual orientation. The first are able to perceive homosexuality as a social phenomenon in the context of the struggle for survival of mankind and the creation of a humane world; the latter are deprived of critical and visionary consciousness, and are hopelessly mired in the mud of capitalism. The emancipation of homosexuals, as people, from homosexuality is one of the forms of freeing man from unnatural and inhuman needs that capitalism has created in man. In fact, the emancipation of homosexuals from homosexuality is one of the forms of emancipation of man from capitalism. Man, who is aware of the disastrous consequences of the development of capitalism, should confront the demon that capitalism has instilled in him and in a manner that he, together with others, could fight against capitalism and for a humane world. We are all victims of capitalism. All of us carry within ourselves from early childhood a germ of evil that, in the inhumane world, eventually destroys the human in us. We are all inclined towards violence; we are all jealous, selfish, “perverse”, destructive… It is only a question of the extent to which we are able to control and conceal the evil that is in us. The only way for man to win against the evil that is instilled in him is to fight against the social order that creates this evil and fosters its development. Loneliness is the soil in which the capitalist seed of evil develops best. The development of social relations and the turning of society into a community of free people is the best way one may confront the evil and develop one’s own humanity. It, in fact, means the development of an emancipated and fighting sociability. That is why civil initiatives and working-class movements that pull people out of their solitary burrows and provide them the opportunity, through fighting against the inhumane world, to experience themselves as social beings, are of great importance. In the fight for the survival of mankind and the creation of a humane world will break to the surface those human qualities that connect people together and make them humans.

Instead of striving for a humane world and the true humanity of man, the answer to the “gay question” is sought within capitalism, which produces the worst forms of social pathology. In an inhumane society, human problems can be “solved” only in an inhumane way. Only in a humane society can human problems be resolved in a humane way.

The Last Revolution (Part 9) << Previous • Part 10 • Next >> The Last Revolution (Part 11)

The Last Revolution (Part 10)

Ljubodrag Simonovic: The Last Revolution

The Last Revolution -- Chapter Ten

Homosexuality