Daryl Lloyd Kenny
Jul 30, 2017 · 3 min read

It’s a curious thing isn’t it? I will start by admitting I have never read the Counterpunch articles to which you refer, but it seems you’re expressing a one sided libertarian style argument for sovereignty, with which I agree, but you don’t talk about any changes in the greater paradigm that might allow that to happen.

I am deeply sorry that you had to experience rape, but the rape culture you speak of goes far beyond men’s sexual gratification. Sovereignty has a unique dichotometric relationship with free will and by extension free markets. Unfortunately sexual gratification is a form of currency. By definition currency is a medium of exchange that is portable, and whose value is derived from its relative degree of scarcity. This value and scarcity is why there exists things like human sex trafficking.

I will tie these thoughts together by explaining that it is the very same patriarchal obsession with female sexual oppression in the first place that paves the way for a rape culture to exist at all. It is my experience that where women have had the same freedom to express themselves sexually as men, that it provides relief to both sexes. The environment ought to be such that women are not only free but encouraged to take control of their own sexual identities.

The idea that women have sexual needs or identities at all has been around for fewer than one hundred years. This is laughable because for most women their libidos are far more voracious than are mens’. Unfortunately, a century later it is still considered deviant or shameful if a woman chooses to pursue sexual gratification of her own. In the few matriarchal societies that exist in the world it is the women who control the flow and availability of sex, and rape culture simply does not exist because sex does not hold the same coveted status as it does in the western world.

Of course, what is mine is mine and what’s yours is yours but as in economics the removal of barriers to trade yields freer access, lowering the cost and yielding better equality for everyone. The same is true with regard to sex as a commodity. Sex should not be something with a value that can bought and sold or stolen but something to be shared freely by consent. This is only possible by allowing women to live with the same rights and moral codes as men.

Slut shaming, religious oppression, stonings, patriarchal rule and other such institutions not only hurt women, they create a sex-negative environment that increases the scarcity of sex, and by extension, the tendency for men to rape. This is not an excuse, but it is my own experience that many women desire greatly the ability to say yes as much as they wish to be respected when they say no. Perhaps it works both ways.

This idea penetrates deeply into your argument about the US being in Syria. Barriers to trade within the region, specifically with respect to oil trade seem to be the reason for getting involved in the area. Ironic isn’t it that one of the Trump administration’s greatest selling points was protectionism. What right does a country have to impose trade barriers and simultaneously use force to overthrow governments for themselves having barriers to trade? Rape is the sexual equivalent of theft so perhaps it’s not a rape culture at all but an imperialistic theft culture. Has the ability of the american empire to grow organically reached it’s limits? Consider the militarism, the imperialism, the growing taxation of the middle class and the cronyism that’s happening. Doesn’t it sound a lot like how Rome fell? Weren’t there Barbarians and Vikings in the middle ages that referred to these same kinds of events as raping and pillaging?

That’s actually an interesting thought.

Daryl Lloyd Kenny

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I am the founder of Life Unbounded - a social movement with a focus on personal prosperity, personal liberty and vitality. I believe in libertarianism.