ampaigns.

At the outset of our attempt to educate the general public in matters of
sex, we face certain factors which govern the scope, time, place, and
method of any successful efforts. Failure to give these factors due
consideration has brought many attempts to early and unhappy ends, and
convinced some people that ignorance is safer than such education.

We must reckon carefully with the centuries of social tradition which have
resulted in the taboo on the subjects of sex and reproduction. It may be
that this conspiracy of silence has proved a failure; it may be that it
has no basis worthy of intellectual respect. It may be that all people
should welcome the new freedom of speech. These are not issues in the
process of education. Our first concern is the actual state of the public
mind; we begin with that or else we fail.

Biologically the all-inclusive issue concerns the survival of the race.
Nature has no favorites: the fittest of the human stock will survive after
others have degenerated and disappeared; the fittest animals will
ultimately people the earth. Sexual degeneracy is the surest road to race
extinction.

No aspects are more important than those concerning morals and religion.
The restraining influences of the fear of disease may and probably will be
thrown off by science. Whether education in scientific aspects of the
subject will do good or harm in a given case depends on the extent to
which moral and religious ideals control the conduct of the individual.
The inadequacy of mere knowledge in the realm of sex hygiene is painfully
evident. To the knowledge of what is right must be added the will to do
the right. As moral and religious instruction is the dominant educational
need of the present generation, so the moral and religious aspects of sex
problems transcend all others in importance.

These are the most important phases of the social emergency. It is
difficult to see them in all their intricate relationships and to realize
that in any one approach we touch only one side of a many-sided problem.
The great majority of our people see only the superficial aspects, or see
one particular phase in distorted perspective, because that is brought
close to them through a special case of misfortune. Even social workers
are in danger of narrowness of vision because of devoted service in
particular fields. The aim of the following chapters is to consider
successively and in right relationships various aspec