02/08/2024
In his book Social and Cultural Dynamics, the famed Harvard sociologist Pitirim Sorokin distinguished between “ideational” and “sensate” cultures.
He explained that for the latter, “reality is that which can be perceived by the organs of sense.” People with this mentality “try to adapt themselves to those conditions which appear to the sense organs,” believing the world to be whatever they perceive it to be.
By contrast, “ideational” people “do not try to adapt themselves to what now seems superficial, illusory, unreal. They strive to adapt themselves to the true reality which is beyond appearances.”
In the mid-1950s, Sorokin was one of the few scholars to foresee the harmful trends of the s*xual revolution that burst into social consciousness in the 1960s. America has clearly shifted from an ideational culture centered in objective truth and biblical morality to a sensate culture driven by subjective opinions and personal pleasure.
Have the trends Sorokin foresaw come to pass?
Declining birth rates and a diminished parental commitment to the welfare of children
Vastly increased erotic content in movies, plays, novels, magazines, television shows, radio programs, song lyrics, and commercial advertising
Increased divorce, promiscuity, premarital s*x, extramarital s*x, homos*xuality, spousal abandonment, and out-of-wedlock births
A growing increase in juvenile delinquency, psychological depression, and mental breakdowns
In short, how is our “sensate,” post-truth culture working for us?
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