RE: Pornography - are you for or against it and why?
March 22, 2011 at 3:50 pm
(This post was last modified: March 22, 2011 at 3:56 pm by QuestingHound08.)
Pornography, etymology aside (for the sake of looking at how it's actually used, not just the pedigree of the word) is stupid.
What it does is take people and imagine what it would be like if they were only sex toys. I'm fine with art, and even with art that distorts certain images and ideas in order to emphasize something or some elements of certain things that we are neglecting or underplaying--I could imagine someone using the example of social repression as a reason for creating pornography, as a sort of equal and opposite reaction--but to deliberately manipulate one's own or other people's emotions in what is already arguably an imbalanced area of self-control, and cultivate the habit of looking at people as objects of selfish gratification instead of others to be respected and loved makes no sense for anyone trying to live constructively. I think Pornography is one of the few things that can be labeled as evil, whatever your religious or non-religious background--it can be labeled because it is the practice of improperly labeling--it can be called evil (if there is such a thing as evil) because at best it is a perversion of what is natural to what is purely a selfish whim. I'm not engaging in slurs or religious labeling, I'm simply stating something as secular as a golden-rule. I can tolerate a lot of things, but I'm sure that nobody can reasonably think through pornography (if they reach the same conclusion as me, that it's all self-serving twisting of images, leading to a debased mentality toward others, and sometimes a kind of addiction to one's own sexual desires) and still say that there is anything about that worth commending. Pornography is kind of a last stop if you want to retain any kind of meaning or morality about your life. Pornography suggests a kind of false life, a lie, which you can distort to suit your own desires. That may not seem to bother anybody else, but I sure as heck wouldn't recommend it for building up any kind of a society or healthy worldview for anyone. I think I've made my reasons clear why I don't support it--what's to support? and why I would condemn it. Most people might shrink that "condemning" an idea--but using/abusing other people and their nature for selfish pleasure is about as close to an equation with evil as anyone will be able to agree on, ever. I don't think people need to believe in God firmly to have a pretty strong sense that there is such a thing as evil. There is a price that is too high to justify certain actions, even private ones--I think pornography is one of those unjustifiable actions.
For others (by the way, I'm not equating porn with Nazi's--just letting people know about a GRREAT mental thriller--watch the movie "After The Truth" about the Nazis. Pretty fascinating, award-winning, and great acting & directing about a Nazi who tries to argue in a modern tribunal that what he did was praise-worthy or at least not-blameable. And Succeeds. Kind of scary. Makes you ask yourself where you draw the line, and how, and why. Makes you wonder whether convenient gratification or self-preservation at a given moment is worth what it makes you give up--a life of integrity and real meaning you can believe in (even if you don't believe in God).
What it does is take people and imagine what it would be like if they were only sex toys. I'm fine with art, and even with art that distorts certain images and ideas in order to emphasize something or some elements of certain things that we are neglecting or underplaying--I could imagine someone using the example of social repression as a reason for creating pornography, as a sort of equal and opposite reaction--but to deliberately manipulate one's own or other people's emotions in what is already arguably an imbalanced area of self-control, and cultivate the habit of looking at people as objects of selfish gratification instead of others to be respected and loved makes no sense for anyone trying to live constructively. I think Pornography is one of the few things that can be labeled as evil, whatever your religious or non-religious background--it can be labeled because it is the practice of improperly labeling--it can be called evil (if there is such a thing as evil) because at best it is a perversion of what is natural to what is purely a selfish whim. I'm not engaging in slurs or religious labeling, I'm simply stating something as secular as a golden-rule. I can tolerate a lot of things, but I'm sure that nobody can reasonably think through pornography (if they reach the same conclusion as me, that it's all self-serving twisting of images, leading to a debased mentality toward others, and sometimes a kind of addiction to one's own sexual desires) and still say that there is anything about that worth commending. Pornography is kind of a last stop if you want to retain any kind of meaning or morality about your life. Pornography suggests a kind of false life, a lie, which you can distort to suit your own desires. That may not seem to bother anybody else, but I sure as heck wouldn't recommend it for building up any kind of a society or healthy worldview for anyone. I think I've made my reasons clear why I don't support it--what's to support? and why I would condemn it. Most people might shrink that "condemning" an idea--but using/abusing other people and their nature for selfish pleasure is about as close to an equation with evil as anyone will be able to agree on, ever. I don't think people need to believe in God firmly to have a pretty strong sense that there is such a thing as evil. There is a price that is too high to justify certain actions, even private ones--I think pornography is one of those unjustifiable actions.
For others (by the way, I'm not equating porn with Nazi's--just letting people know about a GRREAT mental thriller--watch the movie "After The Truth" about the Nazis. Pretty fascinating, award-winning, and great acting & directing about a Nazi who tries to argue in a modern tribunal that what he did was praise-worthy or at least not-blameable. And Succeeds. Kind of scary. Makes you ask yourself where you draw the line, and how, and why. Makes you wonder whether convenient gratification or self-preservation at a given moment is worth what it makes you give up--a life of integrity and real meaning you can believe in (even if you don't believe in God).
