The Last Moan of Western Civilization

It is 2009 and don't worry the sexual revolution is not about the increase of barbarianism and a degeneration into orgies and perversions. It is just a little adjustment in sexual mores, a loosening up of an overly-puritanical code of repression and the linking of sex to love instead of the institution of marriage. Yeah, right.

Canada's national newspaper, The Globe and Mail, has a story today about the latest problem students in university dorms have: having to choose between watching or leaving while your roommate has sex with his or her boy/girlfriend (er, hookup for tonight). Miss Manners has not defined proper etiquette in such cases. You apparently are supposed to leave the room and sleep on a couch in the TV lounge (this is being "sexiled"). Or you could stay and watch if you like (maybe make popcorn and applaud at the end), especially if you can't afford cable and the Playboy channel. Committing fornication is now considered not only morally permissible; it is now considered OK to do it in the presence of other people. (If you thought there were no more steps to take in the sexual revolution, don't be silly; there are always more steps to take.)

University officials seem to have no idea what to do about it or if anything needs to be done. They have set up the playground for the kiddies to indulge their every hormonal desire and, if you get sexiled today, they assume you will be sexiling your roommate next week anyway. So what is the big deal?

Indeed, what is the big deal about sex anyway? It is now considered to be just another bodily function. All that stuff about romance, love and intimacy is just passe. The hook-up culture dominant on university campuses considers sex to be nothing more than taking a drink of water because humans are just hunks of meat with hormones. What is the big deal? It looks like Western civilization is destined to end not with a bang or a wimper, but with a moan.