Permissive society

The permissive society is a society where social norms are becoming increasingly liberal. This usually accompanies a change in what is considered deviant. While typically preserving the rule "do not harm others", a permissive society would have few other moral codes (harm principle, no victimless crimes). Aspects that often change as a society becomes more permissive:

• Sexual freedom increases. This includes the freedom to take part in sexual activities which were previously considered unacceptable or even criminalized, such as BDSM, fetishes, and homosexuality. Freedom to view violent and sexual material including movies, music, art and literature increases, and censorship of these and other arts decreases.
• The power of religious groups subsides, often accompanied by a rising secularism.

The most cited example is that of the social revolution and sexual revolution of the 1960s in Europe and America both in the new attitudes to the arts, abortion, homosexuality and capital punishment. Also commonly mentioned is the general loosening of Britain's former adherence to Victorian values.

Though some view permissiveness as a positive, social conservatives claim that it destroys the structure for a civilized and valid society. For example, lower divorce rates, decreasing the incidence of sexually transmitted diseases, and controlling crime are all desirable. Totalitarianism can invoke either social stance at its convenience, regardless of magnitude.

Others answer that these problems are themselves outcomes of the very repressiveness that seeks to eliminate them, where citizens thinking, speaking, and acting freely have contributed to a society where freethinkers thrive, without having to fear repression through intolerance.

Further reading

Alan Petigny, The Permissive Society, America, 1941–1965 (University of Florida, 2009; ISBN 9780521888967)