The Gum Tree for 2007 October 3

This is a comment I made on the blog Classical Values I couldn't help but comment on this thread since 1) I received that same email, 2) I happen to belong to the same church as both Justin Hart and Mitt Romney (as well as the Marriott’s)—which church is very outspoken on such issues. So, admittedly, I am an Activist. I also haven’t read your blog long enough, or deeply enough to fully appreciate your philosophical premises (except for your affinity to some brand of libertarianism) so forgive me if I don’t fully understand from where you are coming. I agree that victimhood is overused, and I agree with Tammy Bruice when she said: "When victimhood is the source of one’s power, then the cure becomes the disease," but who is gaining from these labor intensive battles against pornography? What power is derived from this effort-intensive battle? There are plenty of people, like yourself, who look at our efforts to minimize pornography (which we believe results in substantial socio-personal harms) and gaze in incredulity. And granted, some of the harms of pornography are matters of faith and are therefore subject to doubt. Unlike Big Tobacco, Big Pharma, or the asbestos manufacturers, those who fight against pornography won’t get a big paycheck, or even hope for substantial power since so many are indifferent or active participators on the part of pornography. You are right that the battle against pornography is ideologically driven, much like the efforts of the ACLU, the Neocon nation-building Iraq War, or what was once the Cold War, the French and American Revolutions, etc; so it doesn’t depend on science (even though science is a useful blunt instrument for crafting social policy). I suppose the American People will just need to make the decision whether they want to affirm policies that are family-centered or those which tend toward cultural libertarian’s political servitude and social license. As for me and my house, I am not interested in doing the bidding of sexual revolution’s Che Guevaras, and that is why I stand on principles which I have reasonable, but uncertain grounds to stand on (just like Reagan did when he gave his Tear Down This Wall speech). I agree that I don’t know exactly what would happen if we cut the anchor to our nation’s sexual mores; liberating them to be tossed by the winds of individual desire, but every time I try to go down that road the prospects become too frightening.