He who wishes to characterize in a few words the European civilization of the present day may say that its nature consists in epicureanism, mitigated by toil and the struggle for life; but this epicureanism is of a very peculiar kind. It is no longer the unqualified sensual life of the eighteenth century, in which sensual lusts and epicurean refinements were to many the whole object of life, nor is it the comfortable enjoyment of “the good old times”; it is a quite peculiar concentrated enjoyment of the moment, in the midst of the hard work of life. The carpe diem of Horace has to-day become carpe horam!
The forced labour which the fierce struggle for existence at present entails upon the majority of men leaves no more time for a simple undisturbed enjoyment of existence, for the inward deep experience of reality, and for a quiet joy therein. No, our sensual life of to-day bears in it the sting of pain, because the will to live, which, according to Schopenhauer, continually strives for an “increase of life,” has now degenerated into a convulsive search for the most violent sensations possible, into a wild hunt after the strongest possible and most frequent enjoyments, because the time is lacking for a peaceful, harmonious existence. Each man asks himself anxiously whether he may not have “missed” this or that possibility of objective pleasure; and forgets in doing so that the true happiness of life lies within himself, and that the greatest possible sum of outward enjoyments cannot procure him this happiness.
The signature of our time is “amuse oneself,” a phrase which conveys the idea of all our modern superficial pleasures, and of our sensual and spiritual sensations, which must chase one another in rapid succession in order to enable the modern civilized man to feel that he “lives.”
For the majority of those living in great towns, amusement is equivalent to a continued succession of superficial sensual pleasures, as preparatory stimuli for an equally fugitive and debasing sexual act.
The frequently heard and favourite phrases “to go through with it,” “to live one’s life,” “to sow one’s wild oats,” etc., have all the same significance, in the sense of preparation for sexual indulgence by means of such stimuli.
From beer-saloons and public-houses of all kinds, especially those at which the attendants are women, from the cabarets and variety theatres, the low-class music-halls and dancing-saloons, also, however, from better-class balls, soirées, and luxurious dinners, the road is open to the prostitute, or to the arms of a girl excited by similar sensual stimuli to a similarly transitory sexual desire.
A great physician has said: “We eat three times too much.” I might add, in amplification of this saying, Not only do we eat three times too much, but we look for all other sensual pleasures in excess, and for this reason we love also three times too much, or rather, we indulge too often in sexual intercourse.
One of our most talented psychologists, Willy Hellpach, has described these relationships with great insight:
“To the enormous majority of our young men sexual indulgence is a matter of course, like their card-parties, their evenings at the club, their glass of beer; and of the few who live otherwise, a considerable proportion do so simply from timidity, or from poverty of spirit (they would like to, but they cannot screw their courage up). Another portion is honourably continent, but does not dare to make any display of this adhesion to principle, and rather pretends not to be distinguished in any way from the majority; and the very few young men who openly set their faces against the custom may be counted on the fingers of one hand. It is obvious that in this way the extra-conjugal sexual act loses the distinction of the unaccustomed; it is effected continually in a more heedless, light-hearted, frivolous manner—until, finally, the very idea of danger connected with indiscriminate sexual indulgence is forgotten; the preventive is thrown aside with an easy “Nothing has ever happened to me.” Indeed, many a man goes to his fate in the shape of infection with his eyes open, and with the most light-hearted confidence: if he is infected, there will be plenty of time before his marriage to be thoroughly cured.
“This factor comes the more readily into play in proportion to the degree in which the whole arrangement of the sensual life culminates in the stimulation of erotic activities. Such a tendency is inevitably associated with the development of the modern large town; and there ensues an imitation of the sensual life of large towns in smaller towns, and even in country villages.[220]