[Dialogue] Pornography, Internet and Democracy

[LAURELCG@aol.com]

Forwarded by Jann McGuire from our D.Min. list, Univ. of Creation 
Spirituality.



Pornography, Internet and Democracy by Victor Bremson

 

A friend recently told me an experience that she had while living in NYC.

She began to notice that she was shutting down her humanity because of the

noise and commotion of the big city.  She knew it was time to leave.

 

Speakers at the recent Sacred Activism Conference talked about a lot of

problems that our society is dealing with including how addicted we are to

pornography.  They were not talking about the hardcore stuff that is so

easily available on the Internet.  Instead they were referring to the

soft-core stuff that the media uses to titillate us into watching.  News

today is more interested in Janet Jackson1s bust than in what is happening

in Darfur or in the sexual transgressions of Bill Clinton than the lies and

corruption of our current administration.  I thought recently about writing

a piece that satirically prayed for George W. to be caught in an illicit

sexual affair so that we could have Œreal1 grounds for impeachment.

 

It is much more than just media news.  It is dramatic television shows that

always seem to have a topless bar in the backdrop or sexual behavior as the

main dramatic ingredient.  It is beer ads that suggest that drinking beer

can solve all our relationship problems.  It is magazine articles that tell

us how to have perfect sex and newspaper and magazine lingerie and perfume

ads that promise sexual success. Even the attack on hardcore pornography and

sexual deviation on the Internet is chosen primarily to stimulate our

interest.  

 

The people who understand this would teach us that the media knows exactly

what part of our body that this appeals to.  They have learned that the more

sex they provide us the more money they make. Prior to 1988 the media under

the fairness doctrine had the responsibility to inform us.  The large

corporate media accomplished behind a smoke screen of free enterprise.  Now

they just get to make money regardless of the price to our society.

 

We have all shut down because of this pornography.  I can try and describe

this personally by saying that our lower parts are overwhelmed with the

stimulation.  Many of us use the remote control device as a way to keep the

stimulation hot.  As a result we have turn off the internal processing of

the other information flow that is coming our way.  We stop listening to the

horrors of Darfur, the insanity of Iraq or the corruption in our own

country.  Like my friends story it is time to leave but where should we go.

The only solution that comes to mind is to shut off the pornography flow

from the corporate media and start listening only to the best alternative

sources on the Internet.  If we totally shut off the information flow we

lose our democracy.

 

There is one problem with this.  There is a bill working its way through

Congress right now that would give control of the Internet to Corporate

Media. If this bill passes the Corporate Media would decide who gets

priority of delivery of mail and possibly what websites that we could go to.

They will also finds ways to charge us more money to use the Internet.  In

short they will limit our ability to have the same unrestricted use of the

Internet that we get today.  We need to let our Senators and Congressman

know that this can1t happen.  It maybe the most important issue that we must

fight for.  And this issue is not about freedom of speech, it is about the

need to be informed.  Our democracy depends on it.

 

Victor Bremson

May 17, 2006