Erastoconservatism

Erastoconservatism refers to any modern/post-industrial movement that attempts to promote, or even restore what it sees as classical pederastic ideals and traditions, usually those associated with mentorship (mentor pederasty).

While examples from previous decades usually take the form of obscure journals (Der Eigene, International Journal of Greek Love, Kalos, Unbound), modern attempts have followed a period of renewed interest in the study of classical (Greek, Roman) and modern pederasty in the 1990s. The most heavily publicized organization attempting to promote and restore mentor pederasty since this era, has been the late David Riegel's SafeHaven Foundation, although Riegel himself remains a controversial figure, along with his ideas. Presently, there is varied debate over the merits of promoting classical pederasty on the long-running bulletin board, BoyChat. This debate is not currently seen in most parts of the Minor attracted community.

Characteristics

In 2026, after seeing these ideas debated, and engaging with critiques, Jim Burton (the editor of Newgon, itself a big-tent MAP Activist group) tried to finesse what he sees as some of the main arguments for erastoconservatism:

1. There is a "truth of pederastic desire", an "essential character" that defies time.

2. It is an innate or natural capacity in all men, "hardwired". This is because it has evolved that way and serves a purpose, like heterosexuality.

3. MAP-related approaches are placationist, or play up to identity politics. Strategically, they are bound to fail.

4. In a society that liberated AAMs and MAPs, pederasty would exist in a bastardized, undesirable form.

In response to these arguments (and in no corresponding order), critics make a number of counter-points:

1. It is an essentialist, ageist, foundationally masculinist project that attempts to play "truth games" by drawing lines (e.g. "innate capacity") deliberately behind the heels of pederasts.

2. All forms of sexual deviancy are civil-libertarian issues, and should be allied together rather than romanticized within assimilationist strategies.

3. Studying classical pederasty as a curiosity/anomaly and/or as a "typical" form (in its time), is both ahistorical and harmful. Similarly, attempts to establish evolutionary function are ridden with difficulty, and in fact fail to single out pederasty as an uniquely "functional" form.

4. Tradition tends to serve ends that are anti-minority, and elitist. Attempts to appeal to tradition could backfire, when ideals are exposed as being incompatible with the diversity of human nature and expression.

Burton characterized the perspectives of some erastoconservatives as distorted - pointing to inaccurate claims about the Minor Attracted Person project/movement, and its acceptance among modern-day LGBTQ+ activists and big-name scholars of sexology. He compared these views to those of christian conservatives such as Scott Yenor, who argues that modern-day LGBTQ+ activism is radical, extreme, and accepting of MAPs.

Supporters of classical pederasty have in turn replied to some of these criticisms, stating that attempts to determine essential character of nature and its things, have long been a project of human societies and later science, and that studying history in attempt to establish these essential characteristics can have a liberatory capacity regardless of its strategic political merits.