Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Father of the Left

Rousseau: The First Modern Intellectual

The first modern intellectual—and the most influential of them all—was Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778). Rousseau did not believe in love. He did believe in sex. He concluded that release from pent-up passions could be just as well gotten either from a woman, man, child, animal, or old sock.

Rousseau proclaimed that marriage was unnatural and artificial, while ‘free love' was the answer—an idea the hippies made their philosophy of living. It was unnatural for a man to have any ties with any particular woman, Rousseau decided, since they all had the single part a man needed.

He only had to convince women that indiscriminate sex was a good thing for them, too, and we could get rid of the idea that marriage was the proper place for sex, and get rid of the notion that there was some connection between having sex and having children.

Unbridled hedonism was what he had in mind—the Playboy Philosophy, the Cosmo Girl—created intentionally to rebel against the milieu, or zeitgeist, of his day: Christian Civilization.

Rousseau: The Teacher of Mankind

To Rousseau, the first man who said, “this is mine,” led to the downfall of the human race, and all crimes and wars since. But ownership of property is not unique to humanity: Every animal is territorial.

Rousseau set in motion the ideas that caused the French Revolution, the movers and shakers of which considered him ‘the teacher of mankind.’ You can trace ‘progressive’ education, social engineering, and the cult of environmentalism straight back to Rousseau, as well as Socialism, Communism, and Fascism.

Imagine No Possessions

According to Rousseau, the first humans were the opposite of Adam and Eve. In his imaginings, our first parents and their descendants, for a least a few generations, lived only for “pure sensations,” and satisfied their animal appetites at will.

There was no such thing as families, marriage or sexual fidelity. No one owned anything, so there could be no theft. In fact, claiming anything, even a wife or husband or child or home, as one’s own, was the root of all human misery—an idea later latched onto by Karl Marx.

According to his philosophy, individual persons are not to blame for their actions—society is to blame. Does this sound familiar?

Jean-Jacques Rousseau: The Man

Though celebrated as a great man then and now, Rousseau was not only a demented masochist but also a habitual masturbator, which he said enabled him to subject all women to his sexual whims by giving him pleasure without their consent (through fantasizing about them while abusing himself).

Self-pity and ingratitude were his two most prominent traits. He declared that happiness was "to never have to do anything I don't wish to do" and admonished his friends "If you cause me the least annoyance you will never see me again."

He was an admitted liar, thief, and coward who shocked acquaintances by the contemptuous way he treated his wife and children. Rousseau loved animals more than people, and called children ‘an inconvenience.’

What is most disturbing is that Rousseau was considered the preeminent teacher of how to raise children—but never took any interest in his own five, none of which he ever even named, and all of whom were, immediately upon being born, dropped at an orphanage where he knew conditions were so horrible that two-thirds of the babies died before reaching their first birthday; only fourteen percent lived to age seven; and usually those few who did survive to adulthood became vagrant beggars.

Rousseau appears to have been a complete sociopath. He preached that the State must raise all children and form their minds, an idea that totalitarians everywhere have since utilized. Rousseau, in fact, believed that the State should be in charge of every aspect of human activity—including what we think, writing, "Those who control a people's opinions control its actions." The Almighty State will cure all the ills of humankind!

Tra la, la la la la, Live for Today

He proposed that men should merely satisfy whatever urges they may feel, without the ball and chains of love, marriage, family, society, or morality, because that way "men could be considered neither good nor evil, and had neither vices nor virtues." In this way Man could be ‘natural,' that is, he could live only for the moment with no thoughts beyond today.

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To sum up Rousseau: He thought Primitive Man (the Noble Savage) superior to Civilized Man, and taught a replacement Garden of Eden story, not based on any evidence, but based on what he wished were true.

He wanted Man to revert to being purely an animal, living to satisfy his urges. For Rousseau, sex was devoid of love and only an animal act.

That goes against God’s purposes, in which sexual intercourse is an act of love between a husband and wife, who together create a family that is the natural essence of society.

In Rousseau’s teachings, any sexual act will do; conjugal love is unnatural; paternal love is nothing but a social construct; romantic love itself is meaningless; marriage is nonsensical; the distinction between men and women artificial; and the only thing that is real is sexual desire.

Comments

James A Watkins (author) from Chicago on March 29, 2019:

James King 32 ~ Thank you so much for your gracious compliments. I am well pleased that you took the time to come by and read my work here.

It is funny you mention Nietzsche, Marx and Freud. Throw in Darwin and you've got what I call 'The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.'

I get the whole Kinsey, Hefner, Leary, Manson thing . . . but Allen Dulles? And John Wilkes Booth? Hmmm . . . you've lost me, my friend.

But other than that I am with you 100%. We do know how the story ends and it is in the triumph of the King of Kings, Brother.

James A Watkins (author) from Chicago on March 29, 2019:

Umesh Chandra Bhatt ~ You are quite welcome. Thank you for reading my article and commenting.

James King 32 on March 28, 2019:

Great Hub again James!

Throw in Nietzsche, Marx, Freud which leads to Kinzie, Heffner, Timothy Leary, Manson, perpetuated by Alan Dulles (and his kind...like J W Booth ET..) and you have a controlled psyche of American secular thought. Of course you can throw more in there but these guys kicked doors open and legitimatized social norms to turn us into to a Godless society.

It is the "Battle of Evermore" Described by Led Zepplin (Jimmie Page being a Black Witch according to legend gives him insight to the spiritual realm) Good vs Evil. Problem for the Evil side is; They lose, at the return of Jesus with His Host.

So be encouraged as long as it is called today.

Look to the sky.for your (truth) and help comes from the Lord!

He is still on the throne' and prayer changes things.

Umesh Chandra Bhatt from Kharghar, Navi Mumbai, India on March 28, 2019:

Exhaustive and interesting. Thanks.