Presumably in modern times, syphilis was the first modern venereal disease, a concept more recently referred to as a 'sexually transmitted disease', and most currently as a 'sexually transmitted infection'. Syphilis was a transmuted (evolved) disease, imported to Europe from the New World, and one of the worst known examples of opportunistic evolution. A pre-syphilis viral infection was a common skin disease among the Carib Indians. Columbus' sailors presumably contracted the virus through heterosexual liaisons with the Carib women, and somehow on the voyage back to Europe, the virus experienced an evolutionary transmutation. A guess would be that homosexual sports was probably involved in the mechanism of evolutionary transmutation. Upon arriving in Europe, it infected men of the French Legion stationed around Rome, and acquired the name of "French Legionnaires' Disease", and was presumably spread through both homosexual and heterosexual activities, and then infected women and subsequently spread throughout Europe as a virulent disease that over time would cause dementia and possibly lead to death. It was then re-imported to the America's, especially South America by the Spanish as a biological weapon in the colonization of the Americas and unintentionally spread throughout the Pacific by sailors and missionaries.
Sexual intercourse is not the only way that sexually transmitted diseases are transferred. Oral sex is effective with some STDs, as is unprotected anal sex. Infection can also occur with intravenous drug use, and has occurred with tainted blood products and blood transfusions. Some STDs and the vague STDs can also be transferred in mysterious ways via toilet seat, not-so-safe safe sex practices, etc., and explaining them when no sexual infidelity has occurred can be a real challenge and test of trust and belief within a non-promiscuous relationship.
In general, however, STDs occur through promiscuity. Promiscuity is an important issue to address. Some species mate for life; some are socially promiscuous or opportunistic; and some form managed families, including harems. In most mammals, sexual behaviors are based on compelling fertility aromas and sport. In most mammals, the sport is supremacy through fierce competitions where sexual rights is the trophy of competition won. In chimpanzees, human's closest mammalian other-species relative, organized promiscuity reins with a pecking order that is politically hierarchical. In mammals and possibly other monogamous species (e.g., some bird species) there are special biochemicals that cause bonding effects. In humans, the bonding chemical(s) seem(s) to affect females more than males, and males do participate in sexual activities for various reasons, including emotional, bonding, desires to procreate and sport, and females who are sexually active enjoy the special ability to be sexual active either all of the time or virtually anytime, regardless of fertility or fertility-based hormones.
From a bonding perspective, the question of promiscuity, per se, is whether promiscuity competes with bonding or refutes bonding. In recent history, there has been a property ownership aspect of marriage in most societies, such that infidelity or promiscuity are property rights violations, and this has especially pertained to women who are at risk of becoming pregnant with unintended consequences. The other issue of promiscuity concerns religious morality, which has had two goals of promoting family stability and producing sufficient supplies of disciplined canon fodder for waging endless religious wars. The social benefit of sexual fidelity for managing property ownership and inheritance; however in today's age of divorce, female liberation, birth control technologies, etc., other techniques for managing property and inheritance have become demonstrated to be more effective. AND, ideally, we are moving beyond the canon-fodder days of political religions, or at least some religions are, tentatively, in some parts of the world. The goals of providing a caring and nurturing and disciplining environment for children is progressively being re-adopted by society and community, as was the case in earlier pre-modern tribal communities.
Functionally, there are only three legitimate arguments about or against promiscuity:
Throughout much of modern times, venereal diseases were heterosexual infections spread through sexual liaisons, and became associated with promiscuity, and referred to as social diseases because promiscuity was a commonplace social behavior. Throughout much of Europe, at times, and on at least two episodes of history, syphilis infected 80% or more of the urban and large city populations (including U.S. urban populations). In fact, venereal diseases may have been what gave promiscuity a bad name.
In general until that past few decades, most venereal infections were curable. There was, however, an incurable social stigma became attached to the concept of 'venereal', and so in the hopes of coaxing people to get cures, it was replaced with sexually transmitted labels. Today, there are nearly three dozen sexually transmitted infections and diseases, not to mention a few minor disorders that are provoked by sexual intercourse (such as yeast infections) and sometimes transmitted by sexual transmission means and various vague sexual infection-like disorders. Some of these have been strongly associated with homosexual behaviors, such as genital warts, but most are heterosexually transmitted. Some are curable. Most are curable if treatments are undertaken early on, and a few are incurable.
'Russian Roulette' was an oddball gambling game where an individual would spin a bullet chamber of a gun or draw straws or whatever, and where one of the options was that a person would blow-out his brains or otherwise commit suicide. Historically, this seemed to westerners like a stupid game, although there have allegedly been situations where a person needed to be sacrificed or put at extreme risk for the common good or survival of others; although Russian Roulette, per se was moreso like a duel. Duels, games of honor, are similar to Russian Roulette, except that Russian Roulette, unlike duels, was a total game of chance, rather than a skill-based sport. Today, promiscuity is a variation of Russian Roulette, and is a game that is difficult to avoid, especially for hormone-charged teenagers and passionately impulsive adults. AND. for individuals also into primary relationships, biting the bullet means that one's primary relationship lover will be significantly impacted and also will probably share the infection.
This situation is technically two centuries old in situations where one lover was promiscuous and acquired an STD, but could never admit it until the STD had become undeniable and incurable. In today's age, there are incurable STDs, some of which are terminal. There are also curable STDs that have no immediate or long-term recognizable symptoms but can ultimately result in infertility or other serious problems.
Human procreativity is one of the most phenomenal and compulsive behaviors on Earth. Evidence and mythologies both indicate that our species had very humble origins and became a relatively isolationist family clan and ultimately proliferated and migrated around the world into some quite austere climate situations, settling virtually everywhere that life can exist on the planet surface. The motivation to migrate is still a riddle, as are our current compulsions to explore space and establish outposts and colonies off-Earth. Perhaps soon after that early migration wanderlust to leave the family compound in Africa became experienced, humanity became a relatively durable species. At some point after the Renaissance and various plagues, humanity and our civilizations seemed to become durable. Proliferating from a family clan to over seven billion offspring is quite an accomplishment, and promiscuity probably played a significant role.
The Gaia Hypothesis suggests that Earth as a living planet is also a living organism and has consciousness, and that humans have become dangerous parasites that is threatening Earth, and that some of serious dilemmas facing mankind today are responsive, albeit intentional, efforts on the part of Earth's consciousness to manage and attenuate the human threat. Indeed, response to stimuli and so-called survival instincts are two of the essential indications of a (biological) lifeform or coherent living being. (The concept of the Gaia Hypothesis derived from observations of seemingly intentional modifications in atmospheric composition that had the effect of stabilizing climate and temperature conditions on Earth.) The evolutionary development of lethal infections that capitalize on vulnerabilities in human social behaviors, such as HIV, might be imagined as a dynamic desperate response of Earth consciousness to the human infection. The evolution of STDs that have no symptoms until permanently damaging effects, such as infertility, occur is another possibly dynamic survival response, and is not unlike the strategies we use to manage other parasitic species.
With sexually transmitted infections, in general, it is critically important to overcome religious moralistic denial that we are a sexually-active species, and instead to deal with sexually transmitted diseases as we deal with other infectious diseases, and this involves seeking whatever therapeutic options are available to cure the infections when they occur or to at least manage these diseases, minimize their adverse damaging effects and to contain then and minimize their epidemic spread. The effects of moralistic denial are to avoid treatment, to allow these diseases to spread epidemically, and to allow these diseases to have permanently damaging effects on untreated infected individuals. In U.S.America, teenagers are becoming the most impacted group because as everyone knows, teenagers are not sexual, and if they were, it would be inappropriate, and so treatment of STDs is therefore unnecessary. The new terminologies of 'sexually transmitted diseases' and 'sexually transmitted infections' are attempted to overcome these religious moralistic stigma so that treatment and containment can be pursued.
© Fredric Wiebe, 2004, 2005 webmaster@colorado-directories.net
720.298.6325 |