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Pornography: Dumping the Garbage of Pornography
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THE VICTORY OF VIRTUE OVER VICE
...Zenon A.S. Udani, Ph.D.
One obvious culprit in the tragedy of family disintegration and the weakening of society’s moral fiber is pornography.
The wave of pornography is ubiquitous; and the sanctity of the home is not spared at all. Concerned parents, Christians or not, have to make the right move before greedy and unscrupulous businessmen and their backers transform the Filipino family into a moral wasteland. Why dump pornography absolutely, no ifs and buts? Philosopher Donald DeMarco tells us why.
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Depersonalizing. DeMarco spells out the depersonalizing effect of pornography. Pornography displaces love with lust. The fundamental reason that lust is listed as one of the Seven Deadly Sins is precisely that it gives pleasure primacy over the person. Lust prefers the experience of pleasure to the good of the person. Rather than loving the other, lust prefers to appropriate the other for the self. Such an inversion of proper values is at once unjust to the other who is regarded primarily as an instrument of pleasure, and destructive of the self inasmuch as it undermines his own nature as a loving being.
Enslaving. Porn is also enslaving, adds DeMarco. Pornography radically reduces persons into objects, things which are disposable and even detestable. Pornography enslaves by imprisoning people in the material. It also enslaves because it erodes personal freedom. There are people who want to keep our sex instinct inflamed in order to make money out of us, wrote C. S. Lewis. Because, of course, a man with an obsession is a man who has very little sales-resistance.
A third way in which pornography enslaves is through chemical addiction. When the pornography addict indulges in his habit, the adrenal gland secretes the chemical epinephrine into the blood stream. According to David Caton, author of Pornography, the addiction, epinephrine goes to the brain and assists in locking in the pornographic images. These locked-in images can result in severely changed behavior, including an obsession with pornography that has much in common with chemical addiction.
Self-destructive. Pornography also destroys one’s personhood. DeMarco states the depersonalizing and enslaving effects of pornography are inevitably self-destructive. The high rate of suicides among pornography actresses is a graphic indication of this. The notion of stripping, especially when applied to the pornographic film, goes far beyond the act of disrobing. It represents the stripping away of inner qualities as well: character, moral values, shame, fundamental decency, restraint. The logical end-point of such pornographic stripping is the complete dissolution of the self. In this regard, pornography leads to pseudo-masochism and death, as illustrated in the infamous snuff films.
Preposterous. The absurdity of pornography cannot be denied by any sensible person. Notes Demarco, preposterous, as its etymology indicates (prae + posterius) means putting before, that which should come after. Trying to remove your socks before you have taken your shoes off, rather than after, is clearly preposterous. Pornography is preposterous because it puts sex before personhood, lust before love, pleasure before conscience.
When Adam awakened from a deep sleep and looked upon a woman for the first time, he joyously exclaimed: This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh (Gn. 2:23). He rightly understood that his partner was first and foremost a human being, like himself, and secondarily sexual. He did not exclaim: This at last is the opposite sex, a convenient instrument for my sexual gratification. The human relationship comes first; the sexual relationship must be grounded in personal love.
As a result of the Fall, Adam and Eve began to get things backwards. They experienced shame because they suddenly regarded each other first as sex objects and secondarily as persons. They then made aprons of fig leaves to cover themselves. Pornography and pornovision, by placing the part before the whole, sexuality before personality, is preposterous and therefore, in a sense, ludicrous.
Formula for despair. Pornography leads men and women to despair, to hell and not heaven. DeMarco concludes, The porn industry, with its words, images, voices, and videos, is, indeed, a formula for despair. From its very essence springs the need to create the illusion that the body is in fundamental conflict with the unified person. Its unremitting aim is to bring about a condition of utter shamelessness through the gradual annihilation of authentic personality.
Ultimately, those who seek genuine happiness should fight for it, living the virtues of chastity and holy purity all the time. This battle leads to hope. “Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God.” (Mt. 5:Cool.
Dr. Udani is President & CEO of VirtueWorks Foundation.
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