Liberal Puritanism strikes again

For the record, as a disclaimer, please let me begin by stating that never in my entire life have I watched a Miss America pageant, or any similar contests.  Never appealed to me.  So what I have to say is not due to resentment or a desire to see things go as they always have.  For all I know, they had a unicycle contest as part of the overall scoring.  I don't know.

I do know that the modern Left is bipolar in its backlash against our nation of hedonism, narcissism, debauchery and amorality that it hoisted on us for all these years.  On one hand, there is simply no limit to the millions of rotting corpses in the wake of the sex and drugs revolution that is going to get us to stop putting our libidos above all consideration.  Really.  Tens of millions have died as a direct result of our post-Christian, hedonistic approach to sex, but we still keep pushing along.

And yet, at the same time we don't. Because parallel to the same 'grab it if you want it' approach (just wear a condom) is the #MeToo backlash that has made even suggesting a woman smile a form of sexual intimidation.  Really.  I don't know if there are numbers high enough to calculate all of the myriad things that are being called sexist, misogynistic, anti-woman, hateful, whatever.  And even basic, common sense, traditional relations between men and women, or approaches to the sexes that only a few months ago were merely seen as a logical outcropping of humanity's ages old understanding of sexual differences, are being cast into the bonfires of our idiocy.

Taking away the swimsuit contest?  Eh.  Personally I couldn't care less where the pageant goes.  But it's this idea that any acknowledgement of beauty is now some sin.  That men wanting women to look nice is some misogynistic (boy am I tired of that word) attack on the empowerment of women. From the Ancient Greeks to the Song of Solomon, to the great Renaissance Painters to up to a few months ago, there has always been an understanding that beauty, including physical beauty, has its place.  But in the stark-raving batnuts insanity of 21st century post-Christian West, there can be nothing of the sort.  All is wrong and all must be changed.  All that is real must be denied.  All that was done was merely the result of the inferiority of all involved, and must be eradicated.

There is a careless, almost mental level of puritanism at work.  In fact, in fairness, we are going where the puritans would never have gone.  Contrary to popular belief, the puritans were not against sex, or even fun (their first Thanksgiving was three days of feasting, games, celebration and fun - how many of us have three straight days of fun and celebrating during Thanksgiving?).  Likewise, puritanism often gets lumped into that odd 19th Century phenomenon known as Victorianism.  So I'm not sure puritanism is even a good comparison.

This is not some defense of puritanism, but it is to say we're going beyond where even the Puritans would go, and yet without the consistency, or even sanity.   If the Puritans went too far, at least they did so in ways that were consistent with their set of beliefs.  Today?  Trace for me a consistent line in our approach to, well, anything and I'll eat your hat.