Benedict’s first encyclical is one any Catholic ought to be proud of, on a topic everyone ought to be worried about: the elimination of love that stems from human spirit, replaced by a new kind of eros — not just good old Lust but a commodified form, a networked orgiasm where every act of mental and physical intercourse is a moved unit, a profitable financial transaction.

Rarely does one have the opportunity to write, “As I and the Pope have been trying to tell you, –.” The public discourse needs more heavyweights punching against the commodification of desire. That commodification is fatal to social order. Philip Rieff, who also knows this, is as old as Benedict. We must not let them be the last riders. I go a bit deeper into Deus Caritas Est, and its opposites, here, here, and here, in the hopes of rustling up a posse.