In Czech, people commonly speak of “daring” photographs. What they do not mean are photographs of someone balancing over a chasm, feeding a tiger, or posting an anti-immigration message on social media. They mean photographs in which—typically a celebrity—reveals intimate parts of the body.
Publishing such a photograph would indeed have been daring in 1905. Yet no one at the time would have described it that way. Today it is called “daring,” when the person more likely to face trouble is the celebrity who doesn’t have such a photograph. If it is being celebrated as courageous, that is a sure sign it requires no courage at all.
I mention this because it illustrates a broader principle. We all admire those who have the courage to stand firmly against the pressures of those around them—provided they say exactly what we want to hear. Women, we are told, admire decisive men who act boldly and without compromise—so long as they do precisely what the woman wants. But heaven help anyone who dares to stand against the expectations of those around him, including our own.
Notice that there was a time when this tendency was somewhat restrained among the upper classes. A factory owner rubbing the cheek where he had just been slapped after trying to grope his secretary might still say admiringly, “She has spirit! Now that is a woman!” There were probably never many factory owners like that, but it stood as a public ideal—something that shaped expectations and behavior.
And notice as well that this ideal has vanished completely from the upper classes. Not only in matters of sexual conduct. Everyone is expected to be an independent individual according to the rules—meaning in exactly the same, uniform way as everyone else. Each person is expected to exercise freedom precisely as instructed. In the end, this produces the little girl who anxiously asks her teacher, “Am I being a proper rebel? Are you pleased with me?” But heaven help the genuine rebels.
Which brings us to another general principle. What we see as the pathology of self-destructive progressivism is, in fact, something deeply human. It has simply been inflated into a grotesquely exaggerated form.
And that brings us back to strong personalities. We all talk about how much we need them, yet it is remarkably difficult to foster their development, because genuine independence also means independence from me—and that may not be pleasant at all.