It has been 40 years since schools started mandating sex education in the nation’s classrooms, irrespective of parents’ wishes. Since then, hundreds of op-eds, commentaries, and news reports have emanated from both sides of the political aisle concerning the costs to society of ever-higher rates of teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) — and pornography.

Cheryl Wetstein’s two-part series on the latter appeared this month in the Washington Times, focusing primarily on the workplace. Included were eye-popping statistics related to the flap at the National Science Foundation, and an analysis by the American Management Association, describing the number of hours wasted and tax-dollars expended by employees who view porn online in their offices. She also cited a book, just out, by Michael Leahy, a former IBM computer specialist and self-described “recovering sex addict,” who calls online porn “the Office’s Number One Addiction.”

Which rather clouds the issue: Are we dealing with a sudden, contagious “mental disorder” (a communicable mental illness, unheard of, even among psychiatrists)? Or are we experiencing a massive collapse of character and morality inspired by a combination of financial greed, leftist infiltration/indoctrination, and permissive childrearing?

There is no doubt that the problems highlighted by Wetstein are a part of the degradation of our culture. Ever since sexual activity was toppled from its pre-1950s perch of romance and commitment and turned into a sporting event by ad agencies, child “experts,” and sex educators, society has been plagued with problems that were previously unimaginable. This is not to imply that prostitution, “girlie” magazines, and non-marital “affairs” did not exist in decades past. The difference was that, in everyday life, some degree of emotional attachment was connected to the sex act, and now it isn’t.

Lest we believe that “old” ideas about sex in a connected context was just “a girl thing,” Parade Magazine cited a finding as recently as 1994 (Mark Clements, “Sex in America Today”) indicating that some 71 percent of men found it “difficult to engage in sex without some emotional involvement.” That figure represented a rise during the years following the sexual revolution of the 1960s and 70s.

But this is a 15-year-old statistic now. It was published around the same time that graphic sex education began invading America’s kindergarten classrooms, before we saw T-shirts marketed to little girls (ages 6-10) with captions like “Future Porn Star” and “”Everyone Loves a Slutty Girl.”  It was before sexploitive rap lyrics became ubiquitous. And while most adults saw trouble once rock groups morphed into the likes of “KISS” and “2 Live Crew,” few imagined that sex-mutilation-torture video games would soon follow via the Internet. And the "pornification" of culture is quite definitely damaging.

In the older (pre-birth-control) days, especially in Europe, the “mistress” was more or less a fixture of society, especially for men in the 45-plus age group. There were reasons for this, though not particularly praiseworthy ones, in that wives became fearful at a certain point of pregnancy and childbirth and, having little other recourse, refused sexual intimacy. So, they looked the other way when their husbands philandered. Prior to effective birth-control methods, wives tended to die before their husbands, usually during (or from complications in) childbirth. But the new, life-saving medical technologies came with unexpected side-effects.

The dual concepts of marriage and family introduced a civilizing influence among primitive societies. Virtues such as compassion, protectiveness, commitment, thoughtfulness, civility, courtesy, and dedication all arose from a concept of “family” — irrespective of whether a particular individual actually procreated, or whether any one family was intact or dysfunctional. Humankind was the better for attitudes that a heterosexual, nuclear family imparted.

Consequently, “cheating” in marriage went beyond the typical definition of that word. Dalliances with persons other than one’s lawful mate were never in the same league as, say, bringing a marked set of cards to the game table or fudging on taxes. One could be a trickster, a swindler, or con-artist and still be a loving spouse.

Extra-marital affairs tear a person’s heart out, poison subsequent relationships, destroy self-respect, and extinguish trust. It’s “treason” on a gut level.

When a spouse is involved in pornography, the “betrayal” is strikingly similar. Airbrushed (and often drugged) models engaged in nudity and sex acts are not something most spouses can (or even wish to) compete with. The hurt, therefore, cuts deeply and alters feelings about security and intimacy. Feelings are especially raw if the wife believed she was “special” in the eyes of her mate. No explanation about “addiction” or “unfulfilled fantasies” can alter the woman’s realization that she is no longer “special.”

Most people, of course, are neither drop-dead gorgeous or “Greek gods.” Yet many “experts” wrongly hypothesize that it is the fantasy of beauty which drives people to pornography. The truth is among the headlines of any celebrity magazine: The most beautiful women (and handsome men) are plagued with “cheating” mates. Good looks are not a ticket to wedded bliss.

What about countering the trends with recourse to old fashioned ideas of virtue and honor? These are based on religious truths, but so intimidated have most of us become, that too few object to using arguments that might be viewed as religious. Consequently, people of principle have not prevailed. Leftists, on the other hand, never had such qualms and have managed to couch filth in terms of First Amendment rights. The results are amorality, chaos — and horrific crimes.

U.C.L.A. psychiatrist Robert J. Stoller, author of Perversion: The Erotic Form of Hatred, has argued that hostility is the essential dynamic of all pornography. He claims that even the mildest porn is tinged with aggressive voyeurism and the sadomasochistic search for a sexual victim. While that idea may be a stretch, there is no doubt that pornography, by its very non-connectedness with human feelings, has upped the ante in criminal activity.

Now that religious tenets are marginalized, educators, the media and advertising agencies keep fanning the fires of sexual aggression. Unless Americans start refusing to support these provocateurs, a police state will be summoned to “restore order.” Nothing generates a police state faster than the threat of abduction and murder by random assailants.

Which may well be the point of the leftists’ ongoing efforts to create a hypersexualized society.

The neoconservative writer, Irving Kristol, prior to his recent death, noted “porn's power to lessen inhibitions.” He pointed out that “acceptance [of] practices long regarded as aberrant, [will] do … for rape and sadomasochism” what porn has done for film and print. He expressed surprise that pornography is considered harmless by the same people who allege that cigarette ads and TV violence have a powerful impact on behavior.

Today, liberal newspapers like the Washington Post regale us with tales of communist infiltrators during the post-war years. Whereas in the 1960s and 70s, they mocked those who claimed America was being infiltrated, a real-life spy-thriller today is apparently worth the hypocrisy. Had more journalists acknowledged the true level of encroachment in the U.S. during those years, maybe we wouldn’t be so surprised to find pornography as a tool in the assault against the West.

Beverly K. Eakman is a former educator and retired federal employee who served as speechwriter for the heads of three government agencies and as editor-in-chief of NASA’s newspaper at the Johnson Space Center.  Today, she is a Washington, DC-based freelance writer, the author of five books, and a frequent keynote speaker. Her most recent book is Walking Targets: How Our Psychologized Classrooms Are Producing a Nation of Sitting Ducks (Midnight Whistler Publishers).

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rprew

October 29, 2009

72.201.107.33

Votes: +4

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"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." - John Adams

"I fear that we are at the point in history when Americans have forgotten God, and therefore our Constitution has no basis. This is why it is ignored today, and will be ignored even more so tomorrow." - Brennon Hartshorn

DDW

October 29, 2009

173.74.213.85

Votes: +2

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rprew

You are 100% correct; as were our Founding Fathers.

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