The true legacy of Hugh Hefner

He’s loved in seven languages.

— Sade Adu, “Smooth Operator”

The world lost Hugh Hefner, age 91, last week. Of course he was best known as the founder of Playboy Enterprises, named for the flagship magazine which was considered, among other things, a forerunner of the sexual revolution because of the topics it covered and, especially, its originally topless, later fully-nude female centerfolds, which many people said exploited women.

But I think that definition too facile.

Indeed, Hefner was in fact selling what he called “the good life” — that of what might be called the “leisure class” (as opposed to the “working class”). Well-heeled, erudite and sophisticated, he and the magazine catered to those tastes. Remember that it conducted legendary interviews, most notably with President Jimmy Carter, and featured well-written articles on numerous topics. (When people say that they read the magazine for the articles, I found that plausible.) It also sponsored jazz festivals and even featured an annual readers’ poll of the best instrumental musicians and, in some cases, groups.

The message it delivered seemed to be: Here’s what you can have if you get to this level. Basically, Hefner was selling not so much sex but hedonism.

From a Christian perspective, of course it’s a false narrative on its face but nevertheless very seductive. After all, it gives the idea that having the girl is about not so much the money but the power that comes with it. Trouble is, such men often have little centering and no soul.

The biblical archetype of the type of man that Hefner thus related to was King Solomon, conversant on many subjects and the wisest man who ever lived — but who had 300 wives and 900 concubines. And they sabotaged his relationship with the LORD.

I see President Trump as trying to embody that “Playboy philosophy,” which is another reason I can’t understand why so many Christians voted for him last year. Of course he’s rude, crude and crass, something the magazine really isn’t; it appears that he’s tried to buy his way into some club that won’t have him. (Note: He was a driver of the upstart United States Football League back in the 1980s and has since tried to buy a couple of NFL teams.)

But all this is “striving after wind,” as Solomon put it in Ecclesiastes. This is why I'm not convinced of Trump's supposed faith in Christ — he'd be willing to leave all that behind if it were genuine.

Considering the lyrics of the song mentioned above, the “smooth operator” appeared to have an empty life — “Coast to coast, L.A. to Chicago, western male / Across the north and south, to Key Largo, love for sale” — in that there seemed to be no point to it.

And I’d call that Hefner’s true legacy. He built a major enterprise based on a false worldview, which also says something about the people who bought into it.