My Wise Generation

My generation has escaped the idea of a fundamental right and wrong apart from feelings in the goals we pursue. This leaves us in utter distate and confusion in our everyday lives. As a result, we let our feelings guide us to the realm of what is right and wrong. In this tragic set of values, one can only embrace a philosophical lifestyle of pleasure (lust) or materialism (greed). I'm afraid if one looks at my generations current condition, this is happening more that most realize.

As this epidemic increases so will the results of the pleasure driven lifestyle. I will primarily focus on the results of pornography. Pornography will become increasingly rampant. It brings together two of the primary driving forces of the 'feeling' philosophy, both greed and pleasure. Those striving for pleasure will seek more tittilating experiences to obtain the feeling they desire and those striving for wealth, in turn, will pursue more demeaning forms of pornography to satisfy the markets appetite. It is what I call the destructive pleasure-demeaning cycle. It is structured as so:

From the side of the individual:
Individual 'seeks' Erotic Feeling
Erotic Feeling 'is found in' Pornography A
Individual 'is desensitized to' Pornography A
Individual 'loses' Erotic Feeling
Individual 'seeks' Erotic Feeling
Erotic Feeling 'is found in' Pornography B
Individual 'is desensitized to' Pornography B
Individual 'loses' Erotic Feeling
and the cycle continues...

From the side of the industry:
Market 'seeks' Erotic Feeling
Industry 'provides' Pornography A
Market 'is desensitized to' Pornography A
Market 'is no longer fulfilled by' Pornography A
Market 'seeks' Erotic Feeling
Industry 'provides' Pornography B
Market 'is desensitized to' Pornography B
Market 'is no longer fulfilled by' Pornography B
and the cycle continues...

As one can see, over long periods of time both the individual and the market become desensitized and is forced to move beyond what it has originally created.

At first glance an individual may argue, "What is the problem with the industry providing the market with what it desires?" The answer is simple, as the cycle moves on both the market and the industry become desensitized to the products that are produced and eventually more and more demeaning types of pornography must be released. The pleasure seeking individual, in turn, does not find erotic pleasure outside of this cycle - which results in the necessity of the pornographic context to achieve the erotic feeling they desire in their own personal sex life. The individual, therefore becomes dependant upon the unrealistic pleasures of pornography to function within the realm of sexual pleasure.

It is important for me to note that this is very subtle, not obvious. No man will admit the effects even daily television has on their perceptions of sexuality and beauty. It is ironic that the individual will suggest they have not become desensitized but does not realize that what was considered 'taboo' and 'erotic' only fourty years ago is vastly different than it is today. I implore the individual to look into this further to realize just how desensitized to physical attraction we have become. Thus, more and more demands are placed on the modern day woman to live up to this standard of beauty and sexuality. Many women bare the weight of believing only by providing sexual fulfillment to another man can they even be considered attractive. In regards to many men in my generation, this pressure women are feeling is not completely ignorant.

As I had said prior, one needs look no further than the context of pornography only forty years ago in contrast to today to see how demeaning and desensitized our society has become. We have only looked at the effects it has on the individual. Lets now try to take away the veil of the video camera and see that the individuals being demeaned will only be able to become more and more demeaned as the industry progresses. The more demeaning it becomes, the less individuals the industry will find to participate. In turn, they will increase their wages to their employees in an attempt to coerce them into doing so. The employees then, driven by a pleasure driven lifestyle will sacrifice dignity for more wealth, and so the cycle continues.

I implore the reader to understand the underlying point here. Nothing good can come from this. As pornography becomes more demeaning it will have a direct effect on the sexual behaviors of those who regularly participate and view it, whether they realize it or not. The whole result of pornography is destruction. It destroys the individuals normal functioning of eroticisim while at the same time destroying the individuals in the industrys self-worth. Secondly, an after effect of the sexually desensitized society is the immediate acceptance of univerally broadcasted television with sexual content. If the individual is desensitized then the "pornographic content" on television is not quite that "pornographic". Individuals who do not view porn, in turn, are desensitized by the content within television - trickling down in a result that can only lead to further desensitization. All resulting from a pleasure driven lifestyle.

Overall who does this hurt? The modern day child and teenager, who is immediately exposed to vast amounts of complex sexual content that resulted from years of desensitation. The modern day child and teen is thrown mercilessly into a sexually complex and intensely erotic society to the point of not being able to make any sense of it. The parent, just as confused as the child, is in no position to lead him or her in the right direction about the importance of truth to beauty because they themselves have been desensitized to the concept.

The Bible tells us God created man and woman in his image. Pornography continues to find worse and worse ways to demean the image of God. It is all driven by the idea that man does not need God, and happiness can be found in pleasure instead of him. Does it not make perfect sense that apart from God happiness can only be found by defacing that which represents his own image?

Craig Chamberlin

Related Stories, March 6th, 2008

Children around the world are creating their own pornography, sharing it
with their friends and posting it online. This disturbing trend poses a number
of questions, including: how do you prosecute children who create pornography?...

http://www.cp80.org/news/show/160

...In the study, reported in the December 2006 Journal of Communication (Vol. 56, No. 4, pages 639–660), the team also found a relationship between porn use and the feeling that it wasn't necessary to have affection for people to have sex with them. Boys were much more likely to hold these views than girls, and they tended to hold these attitudes more strongly when they perceived the material as realistic, the team found....

...In a related study in the March issue of Sex Roles (Vol. 56, No. 5/6, pages 381–395), the Dutch team found a link between the type and explicitness of sexual media the teens saw and their tendency to view women as sexual "play things." The more explicit the material viewed, the more likely young people were to see women in these ways—and Internet movie porn was the only media type to show a statistically significant relationship, they found....

http://www.apa.org/monitor/nov07/webporn.html

Hosea 16 Years Old ~ When I was 10, my sister's boyfriend and I opened up a website on pornography. It caused me to be curious. I wanted to see more. My mom wanted to take me to Wet & Wild Water Park. I got on the Internet and typed in "Wet & Wild" to find out how much it cost. When I clicked on the site, it was lesbian pornography; more pop ups came and hours of this went on. I save more than 1,000 pictures on floppy disk and printed them out. It's amazing how the words Wet & Wild can lead you to something entirely different that will get you into bondage. It corrupted my mind. When I would see a girl all I could picture was seeing them naked. I judged girls on their body, and not their personality. Pornography got me into a sexual relationship with a girl.

http://www.protectkids.com/effects/teentestimonials.htm