The Social Emergency - Studies in Sex Hygiene and Morals by Various
page 59 of 178 (33%)
page 59 of 178 (33%)
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(1) The first aim is individual prudence. Every normal human being must undergo crucial tests and solve vital problems in his own sex life. The most beautiful successes of life and its most conspicuous failures are both exceedingly frequent in the realm of sex. The conditions of the sexual life are sufficiently alike in all normal cases so that the experience of the race is valuable to the individual in meeting his own problems. Each child as he passes onward through youth to maturity is treading a road new to him, not lacking in danger and pitfalls, nor without opportunities for great reward. Education must give him all the available advance information concerning the road he is to travel. (2) The second aim is general intelligence. Sex is a universal element in all living beings, with the exception of the very lowest; it pervades the life of the spirit as well as the life of the body. No man, therefore, can be intelligent concerning things in general without a clear, definite and accurate knowledge of the fundamental facts of sex. One of the strongest new visions concerning sex is the marvelous way in it ramifies into all fields of thought and action. Not a few of the most eminent workers in modern science incline to consider all aspects of human life, including even religion itself, as emanations or processes from the sex basis. Such in particular are G. Stanley Hall in America and Freud in Germany. Without going to such extremes we may still recognize the fact that in all sorts of physical and psychic problems in morals, religion, and sociology, sex plays an important part and must be understood if we are to grasp the situation and its meaning.[31] (3) The third aim is social enlightenment. The human spirit in our own day is manifestly addressing itself to the solution of the special social problems which involve the sexual life of men. Three of these problems may |
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