« Obama's Sleepy Campaign | Main | What I've Learned: Long Panels Edition »
September 27, 2007
Movement Politics
So Obama's NYC mega-rally tonight may prove a meat-market. Sweet! Events like that, along with similarly sexy possibilities in groups like Drinking Liberally, leave me confident in the future of the Left. At the end of the day, the strength of a movement is highly correlated with its capacity to get you laid.
September 27, 2007 | Permalink
Comments
" . . . the strength of a movement is highly correlated with its capacity to get you laid."
Hmmm . . . can't say I agree with that. I mean, the Christian right is pretty awesomely powerful. But its capacity to get you laid? Uh, not so much.
Posted by: Kathy G. | Sep 27, 2007 1:36:54 PM
I think that's exactly wrong. Tons of people join Christian youth groups because they're a place to meet people of the opposite sex, and even more join churches because they're a place to build community and meet potential mates. Sure, the ethos is more of a place to get married than laid, but I think the principle is similar.
That said, I'm focusing a bit on movements of the youngish here.
Posted by: Ezra | Sep 27, 2007 1:58:11 PM
> I mean, the Christian right is pretty
> awesomely powerful. But its capacity to
> get you laid? Uh, not so much.
I take it you never attended church camp as a teenager.
Cranky
Posted by: Cranky Observer | Sep 27, 2007 1:58:14 PM
Getting properly laid.
A lovely concept;
An existential good, actually.
[I've been working on the 'e' word
for a long -"he..really! slow" - time.
Seems a good place for it.]
Posted by: has_te | Sep 27, 2007 2:05:08 PM
By that metric, the global jihadi movement is dead.
Posted by: Chris | Sep 27, 2007 2:06:48 PM
"the strength of a movement is highly correlated with its capacity to get you laid."
Yeah, that principle really worked for the anti-Vietnam War movement.
The sentiment's a nice one, but I'm gonna have to go ahead and disagree with you here pal.
Posted by: Philly | Sep 27, 2007 2:13:18 PM
Ezra and Cranky are exactly right, except that the ethos has very little to do with finding a marriage partner. Church camps, retreats, youth groups are just as much about hooking up as any other group of teenagers. The only problem is that the more churched the kids are, the less likely they are to practice safe sex, which is why pregnancy and STD rates are slightly higher - as are divorces - among the most conservative Christian groups than the rest of the population.
Posted by: Stephen | Sep 27, 2007 2:20:26 PM
Also, folks, some comments on this blog may be a little tongue in cheek...
Posted by: Ezra | Sep 27, 2007 2:24:50 PM
"the strength of a movement is highly correlated with its capacity to get you laid."
Yeah, that principle really worked for the anti-Vietnam War movement.
My impression is that it did work ... that lots of people were into the protest/hippie movement to meet girls (or boys). Not all, but ... let's call it a substantial minority.
Posted by: Nicholas Beaudrot | Sep 27, 2007 2:34:02 PM
If the "one ardent Obama supporter" demands that we appreciate his popped collar before he starts a fight with a random stranger, he may be disappointed.
Posted by: Nicholas Beaudrot | Sep 27, 2007 2:35:08 PM
"By that metric, the global jihadi movement is dead."
Obviously, it's a bit different than church camp, but it's fairly common for fundamentalist Islamic clerics to very actively work on getting young male adherents married quickly to female members of their community (i.e., matchmaking, which is a very important service in that environment).
Posted by: richard_yates_rules | Sep 27, 2007 2:45:25 PM
Nicholas, I meant it didn't work because it didn't end the war in Vietnam. The point is, while the prospect of getting ass may indeed draw young people to a cause, I doubt that the sex lives of activists are determining factors in the ultimate success of a given movement.
Posted by: Philly | Sep 27, 2007 2:57:41 PM
"similarly sexy possibilities in groups like Drinking Liberally..."
I should be so lucky. The regular crowd at the local chapter of Drinking Liberally included exactly one straight, attractive female, and I use the past tense because she's in Europe for most of the year.
Posted by: Cyrus | Sep 27, 2007 3:03:43 PM
Nicholas, I meant it didn't work because it didn't end the war in Vietnam. The point is, while the prospect of getting ass may indeed draw young people to a cause, I doubt that the sex lives of activists are determining factors in the ultimate success of a given movement.
C'mon, man! Get your priorities straight!
Posted by: Nicholas Beaudrot | Sep 27, 2007 3:28:08 PM
At the end of the day, the strength of a movement is highly correlated with its capacity to get you laid.
Smells like a dissertation to me.
Posted by: Phoenician in a time of Romans | Sep 27, 2007 3:36:44 PM
"I take it you never attended church camp as a teenager."
Ahem -- actually, Cranky, during my teenage years I was involved in several Catholic youth groups, and so I know whereof I speak. Not only were they absolutely NOT places to get laid, they were places where you were explicitly instructed in the dogma that sexuality -- which included everything from premarital sex to birth control to abortion to homosexuality to, yes!, masturbation (I once had the dubious pleasure of hearing a full-length, fire-and-brimstone sermon devoted entirely to that latter topic) -- was evil. It was something to be put off until you were a mature adult who was "ready" for it. And even then, it was to be engaged in solely for the purpose of bringing more potential Catholics into this sinful, fallen world of ours.
I apologize if I'm indulging in a stereotype here, but Ezra, you're Jewish, and from what I know about the Jewish tradition (which admittedly is not a lot) it is not nearly so anti-sex and anti-pleasure as the mainstream Christian traditions are. Not even close!
Not to say that those of us who were involved in these Catholic youth groups were not horny as hell. We were! But the youth groups were all about sublimating that sexual energy and using it to advance the agenda of the Church.
In fact, the spiritual exercises that we took part in during retreats were often explicitly designed to prey upon our adolescent guilt about our sexuality, and to accept Jesus Christ in the form of his One and Only Holy Apostolic Church here on earth, as the intermediary that could forgive us, free us, and wash away the sins of the flesh. The whole subject of the Catholic youth group as institution and as a totalizing political/psychological/spiritual experience is fascinating, and something I should write about one of these days . . .
Anyway, bottom line is, I still ain't buyin' Ezra's theory, though I do admit that for many groups on the left, at least, Teh Sex is a powerful motivator for activism.
P.S. I agree 100% that Richard Yates rules! Though I shudder to think of the monstrosity that the upcoming Sam Mendes adaptation of Revolutionary Road is bound to turn into, especially since it stars Kate and Leo. (And I say this even though Winslet is probably my favorite contemporary actress and she's not necessarily miscast as April).
Posted by: Kathy G. | Sep 27, 2007 4:34:22 PM
And one more thing -- the other reason why Catholic youth groups were a terrible place to try to get laid was that, most of the guys involved pinged for me.
Even then! This was before I'd ever met an out homosexual, but somehow I knew . . .
Posted by: Kathy G. | Sep 27, 2007 4:36:59 PM
Now I'm hoping for an Edwards/Obama ticket more than ever before -- I need to get into some of that Obama girl action. Too many of the ladies on our side are elderly women who wish John was their son.
Posted by: Neil the Ethical Werewolf | Sep 27, 2007 6:03:22 PM
I wish! I went to drinking liberally once and there wasn't a person under fifty. Sigh.
Posted by: Charles | Sep 27, 2007 6:37:30 PM
"By that metric, the global jihadi movement is dead."Obviously, it's a bit different than church camp, but it's fairly common for fundamentalist Islamic clerics to very actively work on getting young male adherents married quickly to female members of their community (i.e., matchmaking, which is a very important service in that environment).
You missed the joke (not mine, unfortunately, but someone with a similar name). If they're jihadis and they're dead... THEN they get laid. Promising to get you laid in heaven is the best recruiting technique EVAR, and accounts for how the movement can be so strong even though so many people in it are dead.
Posted by: Chris | Sep 27, 2007 9:16:42 PM
Ah, that Sullivan column brings back memories. When I played a role in the Dean campaign back in 03, we had many people who wanted to interview volunteers for "lifestyle" stories. One of them was a woman who wrote a sex column for a local free weekly, and she was determined to assert the thesis that Dean supporters were really in it to hook up with other cool, internet-savvy types.
And of course, when you pick and choose your subjects for a story, you can support any thesis. I think most campaigns have been a place for young activists to hook up.
One last observation, from experience: lefty girls are not one whit "easier" than the general population of young people in New York City. Of course, most of the young people in Manhattan are left of center, so no need to go to a campaign for that.
If this guy thinks that just going to an Obama event is going to make him attractive to Obama-supporting women, he is an idiot. For one thing, he will be surrounded by other Obama-supporting men, so to have a chance he will need to stand out in some way as attractive due to things like, you know, charm, intelligence, sense of humor, trappings of success. The usual.
Posted by: jd | Sep 28, 2007 12:01:49 AM
At the end of the day, the strength of a movement is highly correlated with its capacity to get you laid.
Perfectly correct. The desire to get laid is the great driving force in human history. Men seek power because power is an aphrodisiac.
And yes, this is a monster thesis waiting to be written.
Posted by: Johnny Pez | Sep 28, 2007 9:51:09 AM
"I went to drinking liberally once and there wasn't a person under fifty. Sigh."
This reminds of a time back in my single days back in NYC in the 90s, when I went to a Nation Associates meeting (a discussion group made up of readers of The Nation magazine).
Not only was I the youngest person in the room by far, I was the only person under 40!
That room probably included more veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade than people under 50. Talk about your crushing disappointments!
Posted by: Kathy G. | Sep 28, 2007 11:23:48 AM
The comments to this entry are closed.
