In defense of taboo.

Liberal intelligentsia circa 1990:  “You know, you fundamentalist types are all hung up on sex.  If you would just lose your hangups, things would be better.  Take pornography for instance, it is the taboo associated with it that makes it “forbidden” and therefore tantalizing.  If we could just get rid of the taboo, most people would lose interest in it.”

Well, they got their wish.  For the last fifteen years, almost every last bit of the taboo against pornography has been eradicated from our culture.  Pornography is everywhere.

Once upon a time, pornography was a rare thing.  When I grew up, my only exposure to pornography was from that sweaty kid down the street.  He had a mustache at 14 and he kept a few Playboy magazines under his mattress until his mother found them.  Then we didn’t see him again for a month.

Now pornography is everywhere.  It invades your home like termites and you need to be ever vigilant to keep it out.  It is on demand on your television and it is never more than a click away on your computer.  Porn has gone mainstream.

Porn references are more common on television than God references.  Porn actresses now regularly make the crossover into “regular” television and movies, but which themselves are increasingly pornographic.  Even so-called “conservative” news outlets do not miss a day without a celebrity bikini slide show and/or a discussion of some celeb breast enlargement, did she or didn’t she?

So the liberal intelligentsia got their wish and have been proved right and all us fundamentalists have been shown the door? Pornography is much less popular for want of taboo, no?

The top adult entertainment companies include Vivid Entertainment (US), Playboy (US), Frenesi Films (Brazil) and Erostream (Netherlands). Some of the major porn producing nations are Spain, Japan, Russia and Germany. According to toptenreviews.com, the countries with the largest revenue from the porn industry (in 2006) include China ($27.40 billion), South Korea ($25.73 billion), Japan ($19.98 billion) and the US ($13.33 billion).

The porn industry is a major component of the world economy, generating large scale revenue and employment. According to toptenreviews.com, over $3,000 is spent every second across the world on pornography

So were the fundamentalists right?  What is a fundamentalist anyway other than someone who says something unpleasant that you know to be true?

We have/had taboos for a reason.  It is called concupiscence. Sin is attractive and it will ever be thus.  Taboos exist to protect our society, especially our young, from the ravages of such attractive sin.  Every generation before us knew this and practiced it.  We jettisoned it and what do we have to show for it? Generation porno.

In Generation porno we actually have to advise our children not to send naked pictures of themselves to their friends, or even take naked pictures of themselves lest their phones be hacked.  We actually have to have these conversations.  I am no sociologist, but I don’t think we are better off for it, do you?

I know that this will likely fall on deaf ears.  Maybe if I make a sex tape, I will be popular and then people will listen to me?

Welcome to generation porno.