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BODY POLITIC!

Freedom of expression, yes.

Pornography, no thank you. Please.

The Porn Monopoly

At one time many intellectually-oriented people were overly concerned that popular culture was undly influenced by the monopoly of religion on the popular psychie. Nowadays, the very same concern arises, except the concern today is with the pervasiveness of pornography in some Western countries.

Porn everywhere?

Is contempory Western society being needlessly traumatized by its extensive reach whether it be on the Net, a strip-tease joint and/or sexshop in the local neighborhood next door( - almost, so it seems)?

Dad, please come home soon.

The pervasiveness of pornography would indicate that it has become a societal problem.

It is inherently addictive as a sexual stimulant. Many use it as an anti-depressant like gambling. It costs money and is as time-consuming as gambling.

In the case of married men with children it keeps them from spending quality time with their offspring. Children are needlessly deprived of quality time with a parent. That time is lost forever because a parent has fallen under the malevolent, slavish spell of pornography.

This is especially sad as children look forward so much to being with their Dad and are always asking when will he come home and spend time with them.

I think pornograhpy is responsible for such irresponsible parental behavior: it's a societal shame. A parent owes it to his children to be present to them as much as possible. If not, in later years they will most certainly express resentment towards him or her for not have taken the time out to spend with them choosing to be needlessly absent from their lives when they needed the parent the most.

When the parent complains years later that his or her children are not making anytime for him or her, the children will remind them of the good time he or she was having without them. Now in turn, they do not have the time for the delinquent parent who is now saddened by his parental oversight. How profitable was his involvement in pornography? It kept his children away from him.

First: Body or Soul?

Philosophy has always studied the rapport between body and soul for over two millenia already.

Obviously, the rapport is an intimate one. If one is not well, the other is seriously affected. This problem is often referred to as the Cartesian dichotomy: the philosopher Descartes expressed these two entities as being in opposition to each other. This dichotomy was also looked at by such great men of learning as Saint Augustine (who had a child out of wedlock due to his sexual forays prior to being baptized which he regretted all his life as it left an indelible MacBeth-like mark on his soul) and Saint Thomas Aquinus.

Which takes precedence? According to Christian thought the body is seen as the sanctuary of the soul: it is viewed as a very special vessel for it is inhabited by a personal, immortal presence who is a little less than a god according to Scripture. This presence is that of a person, a co-creator and co-author with his/her Creator. The Catholic doctrine of the Immaculate Conception confirmed by the Apparition of our Lady at Lourdes affirms that the God-Man child could not have come into the world from an imperfect vessel. The vessel, the body of the Blessed Virgin had to be de facto immaculate, free from the influence of corruption (i.e. original sin). The body in this scenario is viewed indeed to be of primary importance but secondary to the indwelling of the divine person. In fact in this instance the Blessed Virgin's body is seen as a holy tabernacle for something that is infinitely holy, God the Son.

For this reason the body when considered as the dwelling of the person is believed to be something special and warrants special treatment which is evident when the body dies and is buried. It is not throwen away as a piece of junk at the city dump.

So in a very real sense pornography robs the body of the special status it deserves in society by reducing it to a pleasuring organ rather than a living temple of the human spirit capable of regenerating humanity. It almost sees the body as a big eraser used to alleviate a sexual need/problem and that is it, that is all. But the body is much more than that.

Which is be exercised the most? Though the body needs exercise to be healthy, this is even more true for the mind so that it may be enlightened in order to better help the person to find his/her voice and way in Life. That is why free education should be a right especially university education.

Potence.

Obviously the mind, if potent, can ensure that a person leads a productive, successful, responsible life of self-fulfillment and shared openness and responsibility with his/her fellow beings creating and adding to a sense of community.

How does pornography add to the well-beingness of a person? It doesn't. Period.

Porn makes me :-(

Pornography portrays the individual as a sexual neurotically driven being blinded by a mindless, compulsive drive for sexual gratification.

It blatantly promotes promiscuity with its brash display of compulsive casual-recreational sex legitimizing all forms of sexual activity from incest to bestiality.

When it comes to pornography there are no sexual boundaries. It stands in direct contradiction and in opposition to the moral laws of the Land.

Besides, there is nothing edifing about impulse-driven pornography in its me-centric insistance on intantaneous sexual gratification. So porn makes me :-(

Porn-tyranny

Porn's fetish-like preoccupation with the body as an object of desire to be consumed is instinctively tyrannical.

It makes the body an object of worship, a false god. It is portrays a perverse realitybecause the body can only be in a secondary position to that of the person that inhabits it. What is primary is the person whose being is incorruptible while the body is destined to turn to dust. The person's being is seen as being immortal and more potent. He or she has the potential to change the world for the better by making oneself heard and recognized in order to influence world events in a positive direction for the betterment of humanity.

According to Catholic belief, the body of the Blessed Virgin was assumed into heaven for it never was corrupted. The body of Saint Bernadette of Lourdes has miraculously resisted total decompostion along with the bodies of several other saints because of the quality of the life lead by these human beings.

Sex Crimes

If the individual acts under the influence of pornography and loses his ability to say no to its mind warping insistance on blind, mindless sexual gratification and if society encourages the porn industry to grow like bad weeds, then sex crimes will inevitably be on the rise.

If the penalties imposed on sex offenders are severe, then society is being hypocritical and confused by sending a double-message by not reducing the pervasiveness of pornography, sex boutiques, and stripe-tease joints in its midst.

All those in the sex trade deserve our support and help to fine more profitable and personally rewarding work. How often do we here on TV how many of these people are longing to get out? Does society help them by letting pornography to flourish? No.

Sex offenders should be seen as suffering from an illness: sexual neurosis. It's a mental illness. (By the way Sigmund Freud apparently was afflicted by it and took cocaine probably to ease the mental destress.) Instead they are unfairly used as the lothsome scapegoats of prison society. This is really sad, unfair and more importantly hypocritical.

Lately, it has come to the attention of the public that many of those in the health profession (be they psychiatrists, psychologist, gynecologist, etc.) have abused the confindence of their patients by trying to have a sexual relationship with them. Laws need to be passed to ensure that there is no tolerance of sexual abuse neither of patients nor health care staff. The Government should commit itself to spot check audits of the public health care environment and publicly report on sexually irresponsible behavior of employees.

What is also unsettling it the presence of health care, court, and police staff at strip-tease clubs. This should be frowned on and publicly discouraged as it gives pornography a social tolerance it does not deserve by people who must be seen to be above moral reproach in the eyes of society.

It is especially disconcerting to know that there are healthcare professionals who will spend their lunch hour at such a place of "ill repute".

Children @ risk

Societal acceptance of pornography sends a double-message as to its acceptability in society.

On occasion young people are introduced to it by finding their parents' own collection of porn. By being sexually active at a too young an age, children and young adolescents can become chemically dependent on sex and run the risk of exposing themselves to abuse by unscrupulous adults, to the possibility of contracting AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases and more importantly losing the respect of their peers if they become sexually neurotic and involved in embarrassing publicly explicit sexual conduct. Who will want to have them as a friend? Who will want to marry them?

Let's encourage youth to get out and make friends, to run, jump, and play in group activities and have good, clean fun for which they do not need to feel ashamed of.

Promiscuity: broken marriages

The two basic causes of marital breakdown: finances and sex.

Promiscuity can often lead some men to never marry. In fact, on the Greek tourist islands many men choose to not marry local women preferring the company of foreign female tourists on whom they can practive their sexual exploits. Why buy and look after the cow when you can get free milk, eh?

I belief that today it is almost a truism: promiscuous marriage partners make for poor marriages as the bonds of fidelity are fragile.

Women as bimbos

Pornography portrays women as, mindless, sex-crazed bimbos waiting for some sexually well-endowed bozo well-versed in the art of sexual gratification (their hero who will deliver them to the heights of sexual ecstasy) to come along. The men count and the women don't. Women tend to be seen as sexual props for men's gratification. Pornography does not encourage men to treat women as equals who can contribute equally to the social order.

Mean Sexist Joke (to Make a Point)

He remarked: "My broad looks great until she opens her big mouth." (Obviously, a man likes women with a brain in her head. So it seems that when all is said and done, the mind is more important than the body.)

Sex?

It's simple: no sex, no children, no future. Sex is the key to societal survival, but not inordinate sex promoted by pornography.

Oriental thought believes sex to be the glue that binds a couple together. You do not kiss someone unless you plan to marry them.

When is come to sex, Christian belief makes the claim that the body of wife belongs to her husband and vice versa as such is the intimacy of marriage. It sees the joy of sex being one of life-giving and life-affirming intimacy, very similar in its mystical nature to that of the Holy Trinity. For this reason, a man shall cling to his wife and vice versa. According to Catholic teaching the bond of Holy Matrimony as so strong and sacred that it affirms that it is inviolable by Man. Sex outside the realm of marriage like pornography is seen as socially destructive wantoness that can do very serious damage to the moral order of society.

Respect, pls.

Albert Schweitzer's spiritual slogan was: "respect for life".

Repect for life means respect for life in its entirety irrespective of a person's physical attributes.

According to pornography your body makes you or breaks you: you are sexually attractive or you're not. You're in or you're out: pornography is unfair.

Pornography is a lie: it sees life as being a me-centric turn-on and sexual gratification as the sole reason to want to live. The truth is a person can be very happy without being sexually promiscuous. The truth is that no one has died from not having sex. Besides, the Gospels remind us that there is no need for sex in paradise because there is no longer any need for a woman to cling to her husband and vice versa.

The impersonal nature of pornography indicates that it has little concern with who the individuals involved are: for all tense and purposes, they are non-persons. It keeps a couple relationsip at a very superficial level reducing it to a precarious living sexual arrangement based on mutual satisfaction, sexual attraction, and sexual performance: it's ornery.

In short, pornography encourages instantaneous casual sexual gratification without any thought given to the quality of the experience whether it be abusive, manipulative, consensual, gut-wrenching, or appropriate.

Pornography seems to give the impression that life is very ephemeral and that its sole purpose is purely orgasmic and that there is no greater gratification other than sexual in its central and all encompassing focus on sexual gratification. Having friends, eating good food, reading a good book, rocking a baby to sleep, being recognizedfor your accomplishments, gaining insight into the nature of things, having a loving spousal relationship, building a family, all these things count for naught. So I say, pornography is just another ghetto.

Porn = Free Speech?

Porn goes all the way back to the beginning of the Modern Era in the Renaissance with it preoccupation with nature, natural form, and naturally, the sexually attractive body. This body-sex-fetish has been a trademark of Modernism. Interestingly, many of the most cruel and volatile Renaissance princes were known to be very much into pornography, one of whom was reputed to be a fighting companion Joan of Arc.

Since the fall of the Berlin Wall we are now officially into the period of Post-Modernism. It is an era of respect for what illuminating things people have to say to make the world a better, safer, and a more just place where everyone can live with dignity and respect.

Pornography does not figure into the equation: it is seen as boorish, boring, stupid, idiotic, and down right stupid fit only for mindless, boorish morons.

Pornography = abuse: plain and simple.

And in today's zero tolerance for abuse, there is no room for porn.

Let's get with the program.

In this area Germany is leading the way. Gratuliere, Deutschland! (Germany, I congradulate you!)

O, Hollywood.

On Oscar Night '97 I repeatedly saw the one blue ribbon pinned to the lapel of only one guy in the audience who got more than ample camera attention, I thought, all on account of his blue ribbon. After a while I thought he seemed more than a little embarrassed.

\I had to ask myself if this was some sort of joke a la Hollywood. :-)

Sunshine

The sun will rise and shine and hopefully you will to. Life is good. I hope you find life to be a profitable, productive, and joy-filled experience with plenty of laughs along the way shared with those around you. Have fun. Give thanks. Be happy even if you must cry now and then.

We, French-Canadians, believe that the more God loves you the more he'll give you problems. I remember my Frano-Ontarian aunt coming away from my Dad's brother funeral service complaining that God loves us too damn much. This was just a few years after my Dad's funeral.

So here's my wish for you: May God/Allah/Yawveh love you, but not too damn much. :-)

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Updated: September 21, 1997