Sexual Freedom in the Age of Little Ideologues (Part I) | Morocco ...

By Hicham Chentoufi

Morocco World News

Casablanca, July 19, 2012

There has been much discussion on the issue of sexual freedom in Morocco ever since some ideologues, self-proclaimed intellectuals and democracy guardians like Khadija Errouissi, Mohammed Assid, Moukhtar? Laghzioui ?and the like ?started ringing their aphasic bells. This issue and many other devices? are a wry way? from those who have been in power for decades to debunk the prevailing ideologies, which have gained much ground after the Arab Spring. The way the ?leftist? bloc reacted to their political ?rivals revealed that the crux of the matter is neither democracy, nor human rights, nor individual freedoms? It is all about power!

Personally, I have decided to keep aloof and content myself with looking at what is going on about this issue? because I do believe that Moroccan?s main problems and plights, be it material or psychological or whatsoever , don?t stem from the repression of their libidinousness. Unfortunately, very few in this country are able to call things? by their names and ?throw stones into the dark and murky water of our lamentable realities?!

However, this detachment was turned into a strong urge to voice my thoughts on this issue after reading some bland articles that seek to reinforce some given ideologies through criticizing others. A case in point is an article entitled ?Politicization of Sexual Freedom in Morocco: ?the Hidden Ideology??

The article in question is no more than a desperate attempt to give credit to Laghzioui?s sexual parade in which both his sister and mother are protagonists!? Thus it would be of paramount importance to rebut some major arguments presented, both consciously and unconsciously, in the article.

The article starts with some lame and self-contradictory arguments that state :?sexuality has proven itself as an efficient discourse that manipulates the masses? consciousness. This issue of sexuality can be a new ideology, which aims at controlling the increasing awareness of the Moroccan ?intellectuals.??

?Sexuality, according to this hobbling logic, is used twofold: to manipulate the masses and to control the Moroccan intellectuals! The unsaid here is far more important than the said.

As a matter of fact, such declarations, whose underlying convictions are replete with demagoguery, dichotomize the Moroccan society into three warring factions: the ideologues, the masses, and the saviors or ?Moroccan intellectuals?[sic]!? The intellectuals, a term that is not easy to define,? are neither?? the ?Organic? ,as depicted by Antonio Gramsci , who commit themselves to the causes of the have-nots and go to all lengths to create a democratic atmosphere where all citizens are equal before the law[1]; nor are they Julien Bend?s ?tiny band of super gifted and morally endowed philosopher-kings who constitute the conscience of mankind?[2]? The intellectuals here are only those who hold tenaciously to the policy of distraction, support wholeheartedly the meaning produced by the powerful, and ?relentlessly ?underpin the ?struggle to keep the majority silent. Adding an adjective to the phrase, ?the Moroccan Intellectuals?, can add some zest to and free it from being a truism. I think there is no better word than ?Faker?, a word used by Pascal Boniface in his momentous book ?Les Intellectuels Faussiares.? ?This category of intellectuals does not only present a biased view of reality but also try to silence the others. I think this is what all Laghzioui?s sympathizers are trying to d.o

In order to sound an academic and a seasoned observer, the writer resorted to some hackneyed phrases, terms and quotes from Foucault, Althusser, Freud and other theorists. Freud, for example, is quoted to support the idea that Moroccans will undergo psychological disorders if they are not allowed to indulge in ?sexual gratification. Here I would like to simply say that a hungry man is an angry man. Hunger and sex, as everybody knows, don?t make a good marriage. In fact, Moroccans are in dire need of job opportunities and better educational and health care systems. Most importantly they are in need of a democratic system that keeps the loss of their dignity and self-worth at bay. Sexual freedom will only rub salt to Moroccans? wounds and drive an already vulnerable society to go haywire.

Quoting Freud can be a source of substantial worth if the reader contents him/herself with burbling some conjectures read here and there. ?Personally, I have always found Freud?s ideas, despite some plausibility, a bit deranged and laden with hidden agendas, specially his sexual reductionism and the implications it has when approached along with other thoughts ?such as those sketched out in? in the Totem and the Taboo (1938) or Moses and Monotheism (1939). In these books Freud, a self-proclaimed atheist, is loyal to his enthnocentrist and supremacist tenets.

For example, he shamelessly declares in ?Moses and Monotheism? that ?The people, happy in their conviction of possessing the truth, overcome by the consciousness of being the chosen, came to value highly all intellectual and ethical achievements. The Christian religion did not keep to the lofty heights of spirituality to which the Jewish religion had soared. [3]

?Further, some of these agendas are unveiled by Kevin McDonald, in his study of Jewish ethnocentrism, ?A People That Shall Dwell Apart?, pointed out that? ?Freud?s speculations clearly had an agenda. Rather than provide speculations which reaffirmed the moral and intellectual basis of the culture of his day, his speculations were an integral part of his war on gentile culture ? so much so that he viewed Totem and Taboo as a victory over Rome and the Catholic Church. [4] ??This? agenda is? voiced abrasively by? Freud himself when he declared that ??Sexual morality ? as society, in its extreme form, the American, defines it ? seems to me very contemptible. I advocate an incomparably freer sexual life.? [5] ?So it becomes clear that Freudianism, or strictly speaking Fraudianism,? is no ?more than an intellectual hoax that will be found out sooner or later?! This is very shocking and . but I do believe that many widespread ideas and commonly hold beliefs are championed not because of their scientific value but rather ?for their ideological targets. Exploiting Freudian dogmas to support sexual freedom calls in morocco is ?no exception.

Despite all the pathetic arguments in favor of sexual freedom in this article,? the vilification of? the family institution is what I found appallingly aberrant and totally abnormal.

Divulging this and other ?fallacies? ?is what the second part of my response is concerned with.

Such fallacies don?t only reveal lack of understanding of Althusser?s treatise, ?but they ?also lay bare an ?ideologically-immersed mind??! in fact, The shackles of ideology are the worst of all kinds of shackles.

References

1.?Antonio,Gramsci, The Prison Notebooks: Selections, trans. Quintin

Hoare and Geoffrey Nowell-Smith (New York: International Publishers, 1 9 7 1 , p. 9.

2.Julien Benda, The Treason of the Intellectuals, trans. Richard Aldington (1928; rprt. New York: Norton, 1969), p. 4 3.

3.Freud, Sigmund. (1939). Moses and Monotheism. (New York: Vintage, 1939).

4.MacDonald, Kevin. A People That Shall Dwell Alone: Judaism as a Group Evolutionary Strategy. Westport(Connecticut: Praeger, 1996).

5.?Gay, Peter. Freud: A Life For Our Time. (New York: W. W. Norton, 1988)

The views expressed in this article are the author?s own and do not necessarily reflect Morocco World News? editorial policy

Source: http://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2012/07/48634/sexual-freedom-in-the-age-of-little-ideologues-part-i/

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