Power, Religion and Social Inhibitions

I have been wondering this for quite sometime now. Why do we have such a huge premium on morality? Where does it connect? Why is a girl/guy who sleeps around, looked down upon with disgust? It's just a physical need. What's wrong with satisfying it? Do we look down upon people who eat dinner at one restaurant and sweets from another? Why do we have this big taboo surrounding anything related to sex? Are we as a society so immature that we cannot handle openness about sexuality? Are we bound so much by religion and religious preachings that we haven't thought about alternative way of life, and fear that way might lead to chaos? fear of the unknown?

We are a land where Kamsutra originated. We are a land where Khajuraho was sculpted. Our Ramayana and Mahabharata are ripe with stories with hidden references, like Ahilya's story, and Yayati's story, Indra's lust, Kamdev's adventures etc. Considering all these, it's difficult to understand why we have inhibitions about sex and sexuality? Are we being controlled under the pretext of religious preachings?

All the powerful and creative people behave uninhibited. May those be actors, diplomats, celebrities, musicians (case in point is an 'illegitimate' child of a Sitaar maestro), sportsman. I wont even mention politicians.

Why then only the middle class considers that staying 'pure' is a way to save the culture? Europeans had a culture as well. The French, for example, come across as some of the most outgoing and free-est people when it comes to openness, sexuality and life. French directors have been handling taboo subjects way ahead of their times, since the mid 20th century. The subjects were controvertial, and sometimes tilted towards soft core porn as well. But they had the openness and courage to try it. Their society didn't burn them for that. And despite this, their culture isn't going anywhere, and is as intact as it was before.

I have an inkling that these probably sound like randomly hewn fabric of crude thoughts, but when you see an Emmannuel exploring her sexuality, or when you see some Dreamers enagaging in acts that border on incest, or a when a Laure lets go off social inhibitions and engages in exhibitionism and free sex, you can't help but appreciate the ahead-of-its-time boldness of French cinema, and lament the fact that even a simple and practical concept like live-in relationships doesn't find acceptance in our society.