- Programmed to obediently work, consume, and act on our
hedonistic impulses, we immigrant inhabitants of Turtle Island are probably
amongst the most gullible people in the history of humanity. In the United
States, critical thought and education are considered to be frivolous.
Madison Avenue, Hollywood, Wall Street, and our very own Ministry of Truth
in DC pound home the message that we exist to make and spend money to keep
our mighty Capitalist economy running like a well-oiled machine. Contemplation
and deep analysis are for "fuzzy-brained liberals" living in
their "ivory towers". Our role as Americans is to "git 'er
done", go home, drink a beer, and flip on Fox so O'Reilly can tell
us what we think.
-
- America's corporate media offer a virtually endless supply
of sound and imagery to stimulate our endorphins while filling our minds
with propaganda powerful enough to make a ruthless empire appear to be
a benevolent crusader for humanity. (Believe it or not, some of us have
actually been able to over-ride the "Americans good, Muslims bad"
loop in our program).
-
- Need proof of how deeply the lies are etched into our
mental hard-drives? Recent polls indicate that at least a third of Americans
are still wandering about with their power to reason disabled to the extent
that they voice their support for the wretched malefactors residing along
the Potomac.
-
- America has morphed from the land of opportunity into
the land of the opportunists. Did the architects of the United States system
of government truly intend for our Constitution to protect the rights of
avaricious corporations and wealthy individuals to exploit the masses?
I sincerely doubt it. But their "rights" are often more protected
than those of We the People.
-
- Consider the example of pornography.
-
- What could be more innocuous than looking at images of
naked people, right? Humans (predominately men) have been doing it since
time immemorial. At first blush, it seems harmless enough that pornography
has permeated nearly every facet of America's culture of compulsive consumption.
Yet a powerful undertow awaits those who venture too deeply into these
seemingly placid waters.
-
- My personal experiences coupled with the well-researched
conclusions of Pamela Paul (a contributor to Time Magazine) in her recent
book entitled Pornified: How Pornography is Transforming Our Lives, Our
Relationships, and Our Families have led me to expunge pornography from
my life to the extent that it is humanly possible. And given its ubiquity
and seduction, it has proven to be a Herculean task.
-
- A woman with whom I had a relationship about twelve years
ago was so damaged by pornography that despite her attractive physical
appearance, she saw herself as ugly and overweight. Her ex-husband had
been addicted to pornography. He was physically abusive, insisted on watching
porn movies while they had sex, and forced her to act out the parts of
the women in the movies. Based on those experiences, she lived in a nightmare
world of virtually endless and hopeless psychological competition with
fantasy women. She was comparing herself to air-brushed, surgically-enhanced
women whom pornographers portrayed as compliant sex partners with endless
cravings for hot jism. Machismo delights such as these do not occur in
nature.
-
- What effect did this "mind-fuck" have on my
girl-friend? Multiple suicide attempts and severe bulimia were the observable
fruits of her bitter harvest. Who could truly comprehend the almost non-stop
inner torment she faced? With the help of extensive therapy and medication,
she was on her way to recovery by the time she and I parted ways. Wherever
she it today, I hope she has conquered her demons.
-
- Despite my strong reservations about pornography and
choice to abstain, I am not suggesting that everyone choose the path of
abstinence. I was once a consumer of pornography so I am not casting stones
at those who buy or view pornography. My intent is to deliver an informative
and cautionary message.
-
- I am calling upon pornography users to consider the harm
it inflicts on them and others, the adverse impacts of its virus-like infiltration
into nearly every vehicle of our media, and the intellectual and spiritual
power they surrender to pornographers by mindlessly consuming their eye
candy.
-
- Reading Pornified (Pamela Paul's book) would be an excellent
starting point. Most of Ms. Paul's book is devoted to personal interviews
with people whose lives have been affected by pornography. She provides
examples across the spectrum, ranging from men who are so addicted that
they spend hours each day surfing the Internet and have lost the ability
to have sex with human beings to men like me who shun pornography because
it has damaged them or a loved one. Or from women (like my former companion)
whose lives have been devastated by pornography to women who enjoy the
fact that their lovers are into porn. And Paul includes interviews with
many people who fall somewhere between these extremes.
-
- Paul makes the point that many Americans fall prey to
the false dichotomy that everyone is in the camp of either zealous pornography
advocates like Larry Flynt or militant feminist oppositionists like Andrea
Dworkin. The reality is that most people fall somewhere in between. And
despite the potent aversion to censorship in the United States, according
to Paul's research, 42% of Americans desire some form of regulation of
Internet pornography to minimize the possibility of children accessing
it. (I did say regulation, not elimination).
-
- Perhaps the most disturbing element of pornography Paul
exposes is how deeply it has woven itself into the fabric of our society.
Movies, advertisers, rock bands, Hip Hop artists, Websites, magazines,
and newspapers hammer us with a steady barrage of material that fits the
definition of pornography. If something glorifies the objectification of
women, lacks artistic value, and is intended to pump up libido, it is a
form of pornography.
-
- Images of alluring women looking ready to satisfy nearly
any man's carnal desires are powerful tools to attract customers and create
the profits that acquisitive capitalists crave. Common knowledge for years,
no? The problem is that now it is common practice to market by objectifying
women. Even life insurance companies try to lure customers using women.
-
- And pornographers have utilized the relatively new medium
of the Internet to take their trade to a whole new level. Significant sections
of Paul's book explore what is probably the most dangerous aspect of pornography.
Users have a strong tendency to become addicted. As with most addictions,
porn users need more, bigger, better, and faster to achieve their high.
Paul interviews men who relate how they "graduated" from still
photos of naked women to videos of women with one partner to videos portraying
multiple sex partners and so on. Eventually, some of these men found themselves
"getting off" on video scenes involving abuse and rape of women.
Obviously the ultimate threat to society is that porn addicts will engage
in child pornography. And some of Ms. Paul's interviewees discussed how
their addictions ultimately led them to do just that.
-
- On the supply side, men like Larry Flynt (founder of
Hustler Magazine, self-anointed guardian of the First Amendment, and pioneer
of "pink shots") have made vast fortunes and taken porn to the
level of "respectability".
-
- Flynt once said, "I believe in the First Amendment
(freedom of speech) very strongly ... and there's no reason to quit now
... All the support has been extremely amazing."
-
- I don't blame him for his substantial interest in preserving
the First Amendment. Under its application (which has allowed pornographers
to produce and sell virtually anything short of child pornography), he
has amassed a fortune in excess of $400 million. According to a recent
report by CBS News, the pornography industry now generates about $10 billion
in annual revenues.
-
- So let's not kid ourselves into believing that those
who have scrambled to the top of the United States' version of the Capitalist
pyramid scheme by degrading those they exploit to make their product, severely
damaging women's psyches, and feeding pathological male addictions are
selfless martyrs for the cause of our freedom of religion, speech, press,
assembly, and redress of grievances to our government. The deep resolve
of pornographers to protect the First Amendment begins and ends with their
cynical devotion to making profits through exploiting human beings.
-
- Pornography is detrimental to the psychological, emotional,
and spiritual well-being of the subject, the consumer, and the family of
the consumer. While Paul stays fairly objective in her book, she provides
plenty of anecdotal evidence supported by data from surveys and polls conducted
by entities as diverse as the Kinsey Institute, Elle Magazine, Zogby, Focus
on the Family, and Harris, to make the case that pornography is a significant
detriment to our society.
-
- I realize this it is anathema to the true believers in
the "free market ideals" of the United States' sacred cow of
Capitalism, but injecting some "Socialistic" governmental regulation
into our economy in the past has helped protect many workers and consumers
from the likes of the meat-packing, alcohol, and the tobacco industries.
And once again the need has arisen.
-
- Not unlike tobacco and alcohol, pornography causes grievous
harm to human beings. Pornography comes with its own precipitously high
social costs, including severe psychological damage to women, addiction,
covert perpetuation of the subjugation of women, our children's premature
sexual awareness, and child pornography.
-
- Censorship is not an option I favor to deal with the
problem of pornography. While the US Supreme Court has ruled that obscenity
is not protected by the First Amendment, like beauty, obscenity is often
in the eye of the beholder. Besides, if adults want to engage in self-destructive
behaviors or exceed the limits of moderation, laws are not going to stop
them. Prohibition demonstrated that clearly enough.
-
- However, pornographers are enjoying a virtual free ride.
There are almost no limits on the depraved garbage they produce and pipe
into homes, schools, businesses and libraries via the Internet. Magazines
like Hustler are look like Sesame Street relative to many Websites. For
instance, in her book Paul refers to a site called "the Home of the
Asshole Milkshake" which "treats" viewers to see how "multiple
men can anally penetrate a woman and then force her to drink the ejaculated
semen extracted from her own anus."
-
- This is the point where I can assure you that your moral
compass is probably broken beyond repair if you don't see the need for
some measure of legal restriction on pornographic activities. Banning child
pornography is a nice start. However, the Internet has made a joke of the
Supreme Court's decision for each community to determine its own tolerance
for obscenity.
-
- Human beings pay a price for choosing to engage in immoral
and self-destructive behaviors. It is critical that as a society, we protect
our children and innocent by-standers from sharing in that cost to the
extent that we are able.
-
- If adults want to make and drink semen milkshakes, or
watch other people do it, more power to them. But as we do with cigarettes
and alcohol, let's tax the hell out of pornographers' products to offset
the social costs they create and make it more difficult to access reprehensible
filth (like the milkshake example) than simply making a few keystrokes
on a computer.
-
- I would also encourage each individual to consider joining
me in boycotting pornography to help weaken a dangerously powerful industry
which engages in a highly profitable form of legal human exploitation.
-
- Jason Miller is a 39 year old sociopolitical essayist
with a degree in liberal arts and an extensive self-education (derived
from an insatiable appetite for reading). He is a member of Amnesty International
and an avid supporter of Oxfam International and Human Rights Watch. He
welcomes responses at willpowerful@hotmail.com or comments on his blog,
Thomas Paine's Corner, at http://civillibertarian.blogspot.com/.
|