Arthur Evans

George Scott has rightly observed “that, without exception, the worship of sex by all primitive [sic] races originated ion the pleasure associated with coitus, and not in any clearly conceived notion that intercourse would produce children.” [George Scott from his book Phallic Worship) Hence it is a misrepresentation for industrialized academics to call such celebrations “fertility rites,” as they usually do.

Industrialism has devastated our sexual lives. We complain that we treat each other’s bodies unfeelingly as so many objects, to use and dispose of. Yet we fail to realize that we treat everything (including ourselves) as so many objects to be used and disposed of. We fail to see that the total objectification of our environment and of nature is a direct effect of the power system of industrialism. If we have been conditioned throughout our lives to objectify everything, how can we fail to objectify those who excite us sexually?

We are casting aside the shackles of the industrial patriarchy. Like butterflies, we are emerging from the shells of our past restricted existence. We are re-discovering the ancient magic that was once the birth right of all human beings. We are re-learning how to talk to the worm and the stars. We are taking flight on the wings of self-determination.

–Arthur Evans in Witchcraft and the Gay Counterculture

Arthur Bell (later to become a columnist for the Village Voice). In 1966 Evans was admitted to City College of New York, which accepted all his credits from Brown University. He changed his major from political science to philosophy and became active in the anti-war movement. He participated in his first sit-in on May 13, 1966, when a group of students occupied the administration building of City College in protest against the college’s involvement in the Selective Service System. (A group picture of the students, including Evans, appeared the next day on the front page of The New York Times.)