Repression and Oppression

One of the most overlooked contributing causes of political oppression is sexual repression. This is not my idea. Wilhelm Reich, a student of Sigmund Freud wrote whole books about this. Reich was vilified by the Right and Left in Germany during the 1920s and 30s because of his ideas. I am no scholar of Wilhelm Reich, but if what I have read about his ideas are true, his earlier researches brought him to one or two conclusions that I have come to more intuitively.

The basic idea as I understand it is that all human beings have a certain amount of energy in our minds and bodies. This energy is presently unmeasurable. It has been called various things by different cultures. Freud called it libido. The Chinese called it Chi. Our culture calls it life force. We get to use this energy for our emotions, thoughts, and bodily processes. One of the main ways that we express this energy is through sex and orgasmic release. Another main way that we express this energy is through aggression and violent acts. Taboo ridden misinformation and shameful silence about sexuality represses and deforms natural sexual expression. When natural sexual expression is deformed and repressed, that energy goes somewhere else. It becomes physical and mental illness and, most useful to oppressive governments, rage and violence. This is one of the main reasons the Stalins and Hitlers find the people who are willing to staff their wars, purges, and death camps.

There really isn’t anything mysterious about this. The necessity of managing one’s sexual life is commonly acknowledged as being essential to staying a happy and healthy human being. I haven’t seen any studies, but my guess is that happy and healthy human beings are less likely to commit acts of destruction and violence. Speaking for myself, I’ve never been angry at anybody when I’m a postorgasmic glow. And the periods during which I’ve not managed my sexual life to my emotional and physical satisfaction, I am unhappy and irritable and resentful of other people’s happiness.

The 60s slogan "Make love not war" really is make love or war.