J. D. Unwin Quotes

“A society appears in the pages of history displaying an energy produced in the two previous generations.

But to see the effect of the sexual opportunity it enjoys when we first hear of it, we must search the records of the next century.”

“Absolutely monogamous Teutons overran the Western Roman Empire.”

“Any human society is free to choose, either to display great energy or to enjoy sexual freedom.

The evidence is that it cannot do both for more than one generation.”

“If a man's wives are compelled to confine their sexual qualities to their husband for the whole of their lives, the society is likely to preserve its conquests as well as its culture.

But if it relaxes its sexual regulations further, it collapses.”

“If an alleged truth appears complicated, the probability is that we understand it imperfectly.”

“If any society should desire to control its cultural destiny, it may do so by decreasing or increasing the amount of its energy.

Such decrease or increase will appear in the third generation after the sexual opportunity has been extended or reduced.”

“If I were asked to define a sophist, I should describe him as a man whose conclusion does not follow from his premise.

Sophistry is appreciated only by those among whom human entropy is disappearing; they mistake it for sound reasoning.

It flourishes among those people who have extended their sexual opportunity after a period of intense compulsory continence.”

“If the male as well as the female is compelled to confine himself to one sexual partner the society begins to display some expansive energy.”

“If the male members of an absolutely polygamous society mate with the females of an absolutely monogamous society, the new generation display a greater energy than that displayed by the sons of women born into a polygamous tradition.

That is why, I submit, the Moors in Spain achieved such a high culture. Their fathers were born into a polygamous tradition; but their mothers were the daughters of Christians and Jews, and had spent their early years in an absolutely monogamous environment.”

“If the social regulations forbid direct satisfaction of the sexual impulses the emotional conflict is expressed in another way, and that what we call 'civilization' has always been built up by compulsory sacrifices in the gratification of innate desires.”

“If we observe the human organism, we notice that it possesses at least three attributes that appear to be lacking in all other mammals.

Its exclusive possession of three attributes, however, is attested and undeniable.

These are the power of reason, the power of creation, and the power of reflecting upon itself.

I define the cultural process as the series of events for which these powers are responsible.

Human energy, as I use the term, consists of the use of these powers, which are potential in all human organisms.”

“In human records there is no instance of a society retaining its energy after a complete new generation has inherited a tradition which does not insist on pre-nuptial and post-nuptial continence.”

“In human records there is no instance of female emancipation which has not been accompanied by an extension of sexual opportunity.”

“In the past no human society has displayed great energy for an extended period.”

“In the records of history, indeed, there is no example of a society displaying great energy for any appreciable period unless it has been absolutely monogamous.

Moreover, I do not know of a case in which an absolutely monogamous society has failed to display great energy.

In the past different societies have risen up in different parts of the earth, flourished greatly, and then declined.

In every case the society started its historical career in a state of absolute monogamy, manifested great energy while it preserved its austere regulations, and relaxed after a less rigorous tradition had been inherited by a complete new generation.”

“It was the unequal fate of the women, not the compulsory continence, that caused the downfall of absolute monogamy.”

“No change in the sexual opportunity of a society produces its full effect until the third generation.”

“No society can display productive social energy unless a new generation inherits a social system under which sexual opportunity is reduced to a minimum.

If such a system be preserved, a richer and yet richer tradition will be created, refined by human entropy.”

“No society has ever aimed at displaying energy for its own sake and no man has yet proved that human energy is a desirable thing.”

“Relaxing the regulations meant sexual opportunity was increased. Sexual desires could then be satisfied in a direct or perverted manner; no dissatisfaction demanded an outlet; no emotional stress arose.

So the energy of the society decreased, and then disappeared.”

“Sometimes we imagine that we have arrived at a conception of the status of women in society which is far superior to that of any other age.

We feel an inordinate pride because we regard ourselves as the only civilized society which has understood that the sexes must have social, legal, and political equality.

Nothing could be farther from the truth. A female emancipating movement is a cultural phenomenon of unfailing regularity; it appears to be the necessary outcome of absolute monogamy.”

“The cultural state of any human society depends not on the behaviour of the majority (who often are almost completely controlled by their unconscious minds) but on that of a small minority who display their inherent powers.”

“The evidence is that a cultural advance has been caused by a factor which produces thought, reflection, and social energy and that it occurs only when the sexual opportunity has been limited.

Therefore the limitation of the sexual opportunity must be regarded as the cause of the cultural advance.

Compulsory continence must be regarded as the immediate cause of a cultural advance. Any extension of sexual opportunity must always be the immediate cause of a cultural decline.”

“The first secondary law is this:

Any society in which complete pre-nuptial sexual freedom (outside the exogamic regulations and prohibited degrees) has been permitted for at least three generations will be in the zoistic cultural condition.

It will also be at a dead level of conception if previously it has not been in a higher cultural condition.”

“The greatest energy has been displayed only by those societies which have reduced their sexual opportunity to a minimum by the adoption of absolute monogamy.”

“The notion of an ever-increasing cultural process has been encouraged by our own attitude to our own peculiar culture.

We are convinced that the cultural process is a progressive development.

We assume that our own culture is the most developed of all cultures and that every change in our cultural condition is evidence of higher cultural development.

This is a quaint and comfortable doctrine, and until it is dispelled we shall understand neither our own culture nor that of any other society.”

“The Roman woman enjoyed a greater sexual liberty under the ius gentium than under the ius civile.

Absolute monogamy was modified; sexual opportunity was extended; sexual desires were expressed in a direct manner; the marriage institution fell out of fashion; women were emancipated; the marital and parental authorities were qualified; Roman gravitas disappeared.”

“The second secondary law is this:

If in any human society such regulations are adopted as compel an irregular or occasional continence, the cultural condition of that society will become manistic.

If the compulsory continence be slight, the post-funeral rites will partake of the nature of tendance. If it be great, they will partake also of the nature of cult.”

“The sexual opportunity of the English was reduced to a minimum, the stringent law being accompanied by the same marital and parental authorities as among the early Babylonians, Athenians, Romans, and Anglo-Saxons.

The English were deistic and monarchical. Soon they began to display tremendous social energy.

They founded the greatest empire which the world had ever seen, established a large foreign commerce, sent out colonists to every part of the world.”

“The third secondary law is this:

If in any human society the girls of an uprising generation are compelled to be pre-nuptially chaste, that society will be in the deistic cultural condition.

If a zoistic culture be inherited, the same power will be manifest in all temples. If a manistic culture be inherited, different powers will be manifest in different temples.”