Let's face it, discussing the topic of libertinism has been long overdue. I've been writing so much about my journey into nihilism that I feel like this topic has become somewhat of an elephant in the room. I didn't touch on this earlier, because I was still unsure about how family friendly this comic was supposed to be. But as I wrote recently, I'm tired of keeping myself confined by the content rules you'd find on a large social media platform. Don't worry, I still intend to keep this site tasteful. I'll just be taking the freedom to discuss some more sensitive topics from time to time. And how would you discuss libertinism without looking into the shadows of human desire.
Let's get one thing out of the way first: I'm not a moral nihilist. I'm a moral relativist. While I don't believe in an objective morality, I think that the language and concepts of morality are useful to describe an entity's attitude towards people's actions. I do believe that applying restraints to people's actions is useful, albeit from more of a game-theoretical rather than a spiritual perspective. That being said, it probably won't come as a surprise to you that I don't consider myself a libertine. While I'm a materialist at the core, I take issue with hedonism. At least with that individualistic hedonism as it is established by libertines.
That may seem contradictory to what I said before. After all, I do believe that life has no purpose at all and that for this reason it is important to pay attention to your emotions. So if you feel the desire to abduct a stranger and torture them to death in your basement, shouldn't that be a goal to pursue? The clear answer here is: no. Being aware of your emotions does not mean to act on them blindly, especially not if they are primordial desires to dominate other beings to appease your own ego. Evolution has developed the prefrontal cortex for a reason. Your task is to not only regard those emotions you are feeling right now but also those you will be feeling in the future. And you'll probably not feel very good when you're suddenly confronted with the task of getting rid of a corpse, hiding from law enforcement, inevitably getting caught and spending years in prison.
I understand that the previous paragraph may seem concerning. Is the prospect of being punished by society really the only reason not to commit atrocities? Well, yes. But what if you were in a situation where punishment for your actions is not a realistic prospect? What if you were in a position of absolute power, what if nobody was watching you or what if nobody cared about your victims? My answer to that is simple: look at all the situations where that has happened in human history. As long as you consult honest sources, you'll find terrible atrocities being committed. It's the part of human nature we refuse to acknowledge.
One person who did acknowledge it was probably the most prominent libertine philosopher of all time: Marquis de Sade. He shocked the people of his time by putting the most unimaginably gruesome desires of the human mind into writing, causing him to spend a big portion of his life in prisons and asylums while coining the term "sadism" which you are certainly familiar with. His work contains graphic depictions of sexual acts and violence, which is why much of it has been destroyed and the rest was outlawed for quite some time. Now it is too old to pose an actual threat to society and is thus regarded as very valuable from a scientific perspective and very influential in art and culture.
But regardless of the rehabilitation de Sade's work has experienced recently, if someone were to produce any modern fictional content that was remotely similar to de Sade's work today, society would still not take kindly to that. Here in Germany and probably most other countries, strict laws prohibit the distribution of content, such as pornography, that does not stay within the confines of society's moral standards. And while I, as stated earlier, don't consider myself a libertine, I dislike the fact that these laws don't make any exception for content that is entirely fictional. Because I completely reject attempts to confine the human mind as I believe that any thought, no matter how dark, should be allowed to be conceived, elaborated and communicated. It is entirely possible to dwell on a thought with the explicit intention to never act on it. Trying to take away people's fantasies is fruitless, unempathetic and inhumane.
How are you supposed to engage those dark desires of yours if society tries to convince you that you are a sick individual for even thinking those things? How are you going to be at peace with yourself if you believe that you're a monster on the inside? Should people really be forced to live their whole life with those dissonances? Please know that absolutely everyone has darkness in them. Those who claim they don't are just the most hopeless cases of self-deception. But it's ok. It's part of our legacy as beings emerging from the cruel process of evolution. Staying in control of this darkness is what makes us human. We shouldn't be afraid of it. I think we should celebrate it.
So do me a favor and take a moment to think your darkest thought right now. Really take your time to savor it without any shame, without any fear and without any regret. Enjoy the feeling while it lasts and then swear to never act upon it. You might be surprised at how easy it is but how liberating it feels.
Some animals are much easier to control on a longer leash.
