The problem is sexuality, traditionally one of the most potent sources of civilized man’s discontent. To liberate sexuality would be to create a society in which technocratic discipline would be impossible. But to thwart sexuality outright would create a widespread, explosive resentment that required constant policing; and, besides, this would associate the technocracy with various puritanical traditions that enlightened men cannot but regard as superstitious. The strategy chosen, therefore is not harsh repression, but rather the Playboy version of total permissiveness which now imposes its images upon us in every click slick movie and posh magazine that comes along. In the affluent society, we have sex and sex galore–or so we are to believe. But when we look more closely we see that this sybaritic promiscuity wears a special social coloring. It has been assimilated to an income level and social status available only to our well-heeled junior executives and the jet set. After all, what does it cost to rent these yachts full of nymphomaniacal young things in which our playboys sail off for orgiastic swimming parties in the Bahamas? Real sex, we are led to believe, is something that goes with the best scotch, twenty-seven dollar sunglasses, and platinum tipped shoelaces. Anything less is a shabby substitute. It is the reward that goes to reliable, politically safe henchmen of the status quo. Before our wood-be playboy can be an assembly-line seducer, he must be a loyal employee.

Theodore Roszak
Pg.14-15 of the 1969 Anchor Books Edition of
The Making of a Counter Culture