Sex, Economy, Freedom, and Community by Wendell Berry

"It all turns on affection now," said Margaret. "Affection. Don't you see? " / -E. M. Forster, Howards End

THE SEXUAL HARASSMENT phase of the Clarence Thomas hearing was handled by the news media as if it were anomalous and surprising. In fact, it was only an unusually spectacular revelation of the destructiveness of a process that has been well established and well respected for at least two hundred years-the process, that is, of community disintegration. This process has been well established and well respected for so long, of course, because it has been immensely profitable to those in a position to profit. The surprise and dismay occasioned by the Thomas hearing were not caused by the gossip involved (for that, the media had prepared us very well) but by the inescapable message that this process of disintegration, so little acknowledged by politicians and commentators, can be severely and perhaps illimitably destructive.