Hopousia
by Joseph Unwin.
Published incomplete after his death in 1936 (written during great depression)
If we allow group B to remain sexually free, and insist that all the women of group A shall be pre-nupitally chaste, in the third generation group A will begin to erect temples to a god, while group B will remain as they were. If the men of group A are then limited to one wife, who never knows another man, the next generation born in that group will begin to display expansive energy; and if these rigid customs are retained for another generation or longer, group A will rise in the cultural scale and begin to display productive energy.
Full text: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015049770160&view=2up&seq=8&size=125
Introduction by Aldous Huxley
notes Unwin’s failure to mention problem of war:
Page 25
“do the conditions which make for a display of maximum energy also and automatically make for a display of the best kind on energy? Are the most energetic individuals and societies necessarily the most kindly, forbearing and peaceable? Unwin raises this question, only to answer it in a single sentence by the implication of a sweeping affirmative. Specifically, what he denies is the existence (affirmed by so many psychologists) of a correlation between enforced continence on the one hand and a certain tendency to cruelty and aggressiveness on the other.”
Energetic peoples have frequently been imperialists
Puritanism tends to begat ruthlessness
energetic societies will display great virtues only when special care is taken to break what may be called the normal connection between sexual restraint and aggressiveness.
Intro by Unwin
Page 35
“When men say they are seeking Truth, Justice, Goodness, or Beauty, they are apt to forget that no human judgements are absolute.
…
In the course of the cultural process standards change, opinions change.
…
When a reformer talks of his desire for social justice he means that the social system should be amended according to his views.
Chapter 2
Page 79
Several years ago the analytical psychologists suggested that when the social regulations forbid direct satisfaction of the sexual impulses, the emotional conflict is expressed in another way, and that what we loosely call ‘civilization’ has been built up by sacrifices in the gratifications of intimate desires.
Page 82
When the evidence is complete we find that adoption of absolute monogamy has always been followed by a type of social behaviour which I call expansive. Expansive energy has never been displayed by a society that inherited a modified monogamy or a form of polygamy.
…
By expansive energy I mean the urge to expand beyond the boundaries of a habitat.
… (P83)
If less energetic societies bar the way of its expansion, the expansive society subdues them, occupies their lands, and demands tribute.
…
An expansive society only takes aggressive action if another society lies in the way of its expansion.
…
Voyage of Capt Cook an example of expansive energy.
…
When absolute monogamy is the rule marriage is not a union between two equal partners but a means whereby a man secures domestic labour and heirs of his blood.
Page 88
The nobles dominated our society for one hundred and fifty years, when the middle classes took charge, the crucial date being the Reform Bill. 1831. The approaching end of middle class domination [=1980] is now plain to every observer.
…
The reformers have merely been the mouthpieces of Time, saying and doing in due course the things that were due to be said and done.
Page 90
Sir James Frazer said it long ago: “Intellectual progress”, he remarks in his evolutionary way, “which reveals itself in the growth of art and science, cannot be dissociated from industrial and economic progress, and that in turn receives an immense impetus from conquest and empire.”
Page 92
Before displaying great energy societies have reduced their sexual opportunity to a minimum. Societies which have had the same sexual regulations have behaved in the same way. A change from the deistic to the rationalist condition has only occurred when the mothers of the rationalist condition have spent their early years in an atmosphere of intense continence. Within the society the group which inherited the sternest sexual regulations has dominated the other groups and the nature of the political structure has been a reflection of this dominance. If, after a period of compulsory continence for a society, or a group within it, has extended its sexual opportunity, the energy of the society or group, as the case may be, has decreased within three generations and finally disappeared.
…
No energetic, expansive matriarchy ever known to exist
Page 127
If we remain in a state of nature the period of middle class domination will come to an end about 1980; after that our society will not produce any more such middle class persons as govern it now. Its whole character and structure will change…
Page 289
The great date in English banking history is 1844. Before then…bankers thought of as issuing currency notes.
Page 303
One of the essential conditions for a display of great energy is that sexual opportunity should be reduced to and maintained at a minimum. This means that some groups will have to submit to compulsory restraints under penalty.
Page 313
If we allow group B to remain sexually free, and insist that all the women of group A shall be pre-nupitally chaste, in the third generation group A will begin to erect temples to a god, while group B will remain as they were. If the men of group A are then limited to one wife, who never knows another man, the next generation born in that group will begin to display expansive energy; and if these rigid customs are retained for another generation or longer, group A will rise in the cultural scale and begin to display productive energy.
…
Thus I think that there will have to be two forms of marriage, alpha and beta. The alpha form will demand pre-nuptial chastity, and, as long as each partner is capable of attending to the other partner’s needs, each association will be life-long. The beta form will be a free mating, terminable at will and demanding no pre-nuptial continence. Each citizen will be free to choose which of the two forms he prefers ; but he or she will have to take the con- sequences of the choice.
Page 317
…much credit is due to Alfred Adler for pointing out that men’s nervous systems are often deranged because their will to power has been smothered instead of satisfied. There is that in a man which makes him desire to have his hour. If he is deprived of it, and treated as a mere cipher, a void is created within him; this void is filled by feelings of rebellion and irritation.
Page 347
Our attitude towards sexual matters is unhealthy, hypocritical, and sentimental. The unhealthiness of our minds has been created by the stress laid on the opinions of Paul of Tarsus. His announcement that sexual intercourse was a concession to the flesh has sunk deep into our consciousness. Organic desires, legitimate and not unlovely. are repressed; outraged nature asserts itself.
Page 419
[Confession of Faith – but not Christian]
But, to ensure cosmic creation the hypothesis of a First Cause is an intellectual necessity. Let this First Cause be called God, conceived not as Him but as it. The little we know of the external world is such to persuade us that God has a Purpose.
[discussion of Great Depression coz 1936]
Page 420
The power of thought has diminished. The Press dictates, suggests, insinuates,. A collection of highly selected data masquerades as news, giving a false impression of events. There is little real mental activity though there is a great deal of talk. The mob fall a ready prey to the oratory of demagogues who, in their will to power, create dissension in order to secure their ends. Numbers, that is quantitative criteria, rule everywhere; and since the rule by numbers always implies a rule by force, force is the weapon governments use more and more.
Page 430 Appendices
We then see how absolute monogamy was re-introduced into our country. In the eleventh century an adult woman could trade, contract, sue and be sued; she was a competent witness before the courts and could give evidence for or against her husband. As a widow she had a claim on his estate. But the doctrine of ‘one flesh’ gradually altered all that, and it also affected the position of unmarried women.
[ changed by 16th C ]
Page 431
[Pauline tradition] “It is better to marry than to burn”
Saxon marriage vow for women included a promise to be: “buxom and bonny in bed and at board.”