What the Manosphere Has in Common with Martin Luther, Jacob Frank, and Allen Ginsberg
The frisson of Meaning Crisis antinomianism is as old as the New Testament.
Reviewing the Louis Theroux documentary on the Manosphere, commentator Sam Harris observed that for the subjects of the documentary, morality is itself a sign of weakness. In Harris’s memorable phrase, they think only suckers want to be good people:
I think this is a useful insight, both from Theroux and from Harris, and it sheds light both on the appeal of the Manosphere and of what seems to be the opposite of the Manosphere, which is the resurgence in traditional Christian morality among young and youngish men.
But me being me, the main point is going to be about antinomianism.
1.
Antinomianism, which I’ve spent the better part of my academic career researching, is the view that, for one reason or another, it is better to disobey the law than to obey it. Antinomianism may be religious, as when Martin Luther taught that salvation is a matter of faith and grace, not righteous works; or secular, as when civil rights protesters break unjust laws separating the races (though this was often justified religiously as well); or even anti-religious, as when Nietzsche argued that ethics do not apply to the ubermenschen who have transcended conventional good or evil.
While the term originated in a specific context, in debates between Luther and his opponents in the 16th century, the phenomenon occurs throughout human history, including in early Christianity, where Paul taught that “the letter of the law kills, but the spirit of the law gives life” (2 Corinthians 3:6). This led to fierce debates among Gnostics, Christianizing Jews, and non-Jewish Christians. Paul castigates those who maintain Jewish dietary laws and the rite of circumcision, but what about moral law? Is all permitted now that Christ has died for our sins?
Eventually, the Church Fathers decided that while salvation didn’t depend on obeying the law, any good Christian would be filled with love, and love dictates moral conduct — with the law as a guide.
Such workarounds and balancing acts happen all the time. Human beings—particularly in a Judeo-Christian moral and cultural frame, but not exclusively—are constantly oscillating between the letter and spirit of the law. On the one hand, we rail against legalism, from the terms of the Apple user agreement, which no one reads, to the intricate vagaries of religious doctrine that seem to miss the heart of the matter. (I wrote the first draft of this post while getting ready for Passover, a perfect example of extreme legalism, with a million rules and little relationship to common sense.)
On the other hand, it is not the case that to love another person dictates one’s moral responsibilities to that person. This is not an abstract question. For centuries, Christian missionaries and crusaders have spread “Christian love” at the edge of a sword. And more recently, in my own queer community, many Christians say that because they love us, they don’t want us to sin and spend the rest of eternity in hell. Therefore, anything they feel is best for us is morally justified. Just this week, the Supreme Court struck down Colorado’s ban on so-called conversion therapy, which is now essentially a legal form of child abuse, in which discredited forms of therapy and self-hatred are forcibly imposed on teenagers sent to re-education camps by their parents. Out of “love.”
It’s not just traditionalists who do this. Think of hippie spiritual teachers sleeping with their students, despite the obvious power imbalances and impossibility of consent in such a context. Or of boomer-era men crossing the line between flirtation to sexual harassment. All out of love! Or at least lust. The human heart may be necessary for ethical action, but it is not sufficient.
Neither extreme — all law or all love — can function as an ethical foundation. Inevitably, lines must be drawn on the slippery slope, even if they aren’t really grounded in anything stable.
Which brings us to from Andrew Tate, Theo Von, Clavicular, and the rest.
