STEVE PIECZENIK TALKS

Vive Le Coq!

Strauss –Kahn Says Sex Parties Over The Top,  But Lust IS No Crime!

After having written a few blogs that reflected negatively on France, I decided to write a piece that can reflect positively on French culture.  In this particular case, it involves the ostensible ‘reform’ and ‘confessions of the sexaholic’,  Dominque Strauss –Kahn,  the  former disgraced Director of the International Monetary Fund. 

DSK is a symbol of what the French have called, “Libertinage”. This Libertine view of life dates back to about the Sixteenth Century in France where powerful entourages of elite members of society—lawyers, doctors, judges, clergymen, police officials, musicians and others would begin an evening soiree with a exquisitely prepared dinner and culminate the evening with an obligatory orgy.  This sounds quite perverse and debauched, but bear in mind this ‘libertinage’ was a very clever and practical way of making certain that secrecy and mutual assured silence  were the fabric of a political institution, if not the French Republic itself. 

The case in point involves one particular character in French history about whom I wrote a fictional novel called, “My Beloved Talleyrand: The Life of A Scoundrel By His Last Mistress” [soon to be an E-Book on Amazon and Barnes &Noble].

The Libertine  whom I wrote about was  an aristocratic Bishop , Charles –Maurice de Talleyrand- Perigord, who had renounced the Catholic Church; supported and then overthrew King Louis XVI; encouraged and then denounced the leaders of the French Revolution; and finally helped create Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte and then sent him into exile.  

In a world where the salons of Paris and the mistresses of French kings were the gateway to elite power, Talleyrand mastered the finesse of seduction, betrayed all of his numerous mistresses, and eventually turned against both King and Emperor in order to one day save France at the Congress of Vienna in 1815. 

In modern day France, and quite frankly America and other countries as well, the exclusive “parties fines’ consisted of lavish Champagne affairs,  priced at $13,000 for each participant. These soirees were organized by businessmen and corporations all over the world trying to influence the political elite of a particular country, in the case of DSK, the ‘parties fines’ consisted of a roving debauchery extending from Paris to Washington DC.  

  Of course, no American can be shocked by the fact that sex has been an integral part of our political landscape.  Let’s not forget our most admired President “Slick Willy” Bill Clinton, an American Sex Athlete not quite up to the standards of DSK who admitted to seducing four to five women in one day. 

Remember as a psychiatrist,  I can indulge in all kinds of ridiculous DSM diagnoses-sexaholic etc…  (that DSM Psychiatric Manual is a testimony of American Psychiatry Association’s  ‘prostitution’ to Big Pharma)… But I won’t.

 I merely write about DSK because in contrast to his past activities , he has been bold enough to step forward on the world stage and explain that he had not committed ‘a crime’.  He admits to ‘political indiscretions’ but not to a ‘crime involving consensual adults’.   In fact, rightfully or not, he has advocated for a “Libertine Party’ in France and in the Ukraine, as well as inspiring French entrepreneurs  to develop an aphrodisiac drink  labeled “DSK”.

In contrast to the DSK case, we have our own little sex scandal in Kennebunk,  Maine where Ms. Alexis Wright, a 29 year old Zumba teacher ran a prostitution racket involving hundreds of “johns”.

[ In the interest of  Full Disclosure, I must admit that I have been a devotee of Zumba Dancing for over six years. Frankly , Zumba is quite exhausting and fun. I don’t how in learning the difficult steps one has any more energy to do anything more than dance.  But back to the blog.]  

Apparently, Ms Wright committed a ‘crime’.  What exactly that crime is, I am not certain, since she was ‘providing’ a ‘service’ to men who willingly paid for her ‘services’. What I am really talking about is the fact that New England Puritanism is still alive and will lead to a ‘backlash’.

 Hypocrisy and fear instilled by the police and the prosecutors do not make her ability to ‘satisfy’ her ‘johns’ any less valuable’. The notion that young women and run away children would be influenced by this ‘service’ is at best ludicrous, if not outright dangerous. Prostitution is legal in Nevada.  There is more pornography on the internet and more ‘official offers for prostitutes’ in the back pages of the Greenwich Village Voice.  So what’s the problem here? Indiscretion by the elite of Kennebunk , Maine?  The list of names would mean little to me or anyone else, unless it included George Bush Jr,  whom I believe had ‘screwed over this nation’ enough that he had no need for a ‘prostitute’.

  In short, let’s take a breather here.  Our country has evolved into a Republic where fifty per cent of all marriages end in divorce.  What that means is that certain societal institutions and customs are not working in the 21^st century.  So let’s not beat up on a ‘Zumba’ instructress  for providing  a ‘much needed service’.  If she were to be sentenced,  perhaps she and DSK can teach the Puritan Elites of Maine, New Hampshire and the Northeast , how to enjoy themselves in consensual sex, passion and or love.  It’s a good start. 

And one that allows America to enter the 21^st century as a mature adult and not some whining, ‘brimstone and hellfire’ puritan hypocrite.

Vive Le Coq!! Thank you DSK.