us, and especially to those who express their homosexuality in overt erotic associations and who are, therefore, aware of certain consequent problems.

Social upheaval and the chaotic condition of modern society are topics of general discussion and concern these days. In the opinion of many sociologists, the collapse of the family as the basic unit of loyalty has triggered much of this chaos. That we are witnessing such a collapse of the family can hardly be doubted. Significantly,

in

areas

where the modern way of life is making its most rapid advances, that collapse is going on at the most accelerated pace. Mores regarding marriage and sexual fidelity have been uprooted. Sexual practices are dergoing a revolution. But as in most revolutions, though everyone is in the fray somehow most don't know just what they want out of it when it's all over.

What we see, then, is the collapse of the family and accompanying it the demand by more and more individuals for freedom and variety in their erotic experience. This may be good-better than narrow, divisive, jealous one-to-one relationships. But at the same time, with the family weakened, we are having trouble finding some way to generate loyalty and cohesion in our communities. Heretofore we had been able to depend on the family to provide these basic requisites for group living. Now we can't ignore the spread of cheating and other quite "respectable" forms of dishonesty, capped quite naturally by record crime rates. The chaos that begins in the dissolution of the family spreads. The delinquent and mentally ill secede, each in his own way. Within nations wide splits are growing (witness Our racial crisis, with Faubus thumbing his nose at the

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President and the courts). Internationally, the world is split right down the middle. As cohesion and loyalty seem less certain, compulsions are resorted to-e.g., loyalty oaths are instituted, penalties on income tax forms become more obvious, the police want to double their forces and resent criticism of their burgeoning powers, and masses of people are getting nowhere at a great rate in little eddies that busy themselves with one or another of the current scapegoats-the "commies," the Supreme Court, or "homos."

Our present chaos arising out of the healthy dissolution of old rigidities does, of course, serve as a fluid interim in which many good things can get a start. But it is only an interim. It can only be temporary. The present freedom will either produce a superior order to supplant the old; or, if it is just indulged while it lasts and becomes too chaotic, someone or some outraged group will step in and give us an order that is very final, a real setback. The police are already leading in that direction and can be expected to have the blessings of the great majority of people who don't like anarchy, and rightly so.

There is plenty of evidence to indicate that a full and satisfying erotic life (meaning that it satisfies the ethical sense as well as the physical senses) is a major factor in an individual's ability to function. normally, cooperatively and creatively. Community life is obviously the result of a number of individual lives and their interaction. It is for this reason that it would seem likely that there is a direct and important relationship between the shifts we see in private lives and in public conditions. Men are looking for a new order. They are through with the old ways and they want to shift. There is no reason why we should

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