A Few Thoughts on Porn

Pornography is a click away these days.  There appears to be no way to accurately assess just how much of Internet traffic is porn-related, with estimates ranging from 10 to 70%, but there is little doubt that porn sites are visited frequently.

Is pornography a healthy way for men and women to learn about sex and fantasize or is it a pathway to sexual addiction, violence, perversion and disfunction?  The answer is most likely complicated.

 

Religious groups have mounted an almost hysterical campaign against pornography and brandish frightening statistics about the amount of viewing, the impact on children, the exploitation of women, the endorsement of sexual violence and extreme practices, and the effect on family life.  They portray pornography as one of the key components in a perceived moral decline of our society.

 

On the other hand, many psychologists and sexual health workers feel that this portrayal is highly exaggerated and that pornography on some level is a healthy outlet for our sexual curiosity and desires.  

 

The subject is rather complex and multi-faceted.  Here is a list of some questions I would pose:

 

1.     Is exposure to pornography a problem for children?  Does it hamper or distort their natural progress into the sexual awakening of adolescence and adulthood?  Does it create an early addiction in vulnerable minds.

2.     Does the porn industry’s focus on sexuality without relationship and/or love contribute to the growth of purely recreational sex?  Is that a problem for society?

3.     Are women in the porn industry generally exploited or are they simply sex workers who have chosen this path for a variety of legitimate reasons?

4.     Does pornography encourage more extreme forms of sexual interaction and lead to increasingly risky or violent behavior?

5.     When is pornography viewing harmful?  At what point does it become an addiction or an illness?

 

A series of Netflix documentaries have painted a rather disturbing portrait of the porn industry.  The most well-known – Hot Girls Wanted – is a grim chronicle of day-to-day life as a novice female porn video performer.  I watched the series and came away feeling rather disheartened about the whole affair.  What saddened me is that young women (typically recruited soon after their 18^th birthday) chose this path with the exciting prospect of getting views and followers on social media or porn sites and escaping what they perceive as their hollow or depressing existence in their home towns. 

 

Regardless of their motivations for signing up, their lives as porn stars struck me as horribly shabby and soul-sucking.  This may be partially my own bias and somewhat sexist, but I felt so sorry for these young women. I could not shake the feeling that their involvement was a desperate cry for a better life that would never meet expectations and only lead to longer term disappointment for most of them.

 

There was no profile of the men involved in the sex industry.  Would I feel similarly about their lives?  Are they exploited or reveling in their opportunity to earn money having sex?  Are men fundamentally different from women in their sexual nature?  Am I perpetuating a double standard by viewing women as victims and men as untroubled participants?

Even if we come to the conclusion that the porn industry has many negative implications, how can it be regulated?  Censorship is a fool's errand and is generally doomed to failure unless draconian steps are taken.  Even the task of preventing impressionable youth from accessing porn seems daunting and unlikely to succeed, given the current state of personal technology that almost every child possesses.

 

We are still struggling as a human race to come to terms with our sexuality.  It is clear that a repressed, guilt-ridden view of sexuality is neither healthy nor practical.  But is it ‘healthy’ for sex to become just another form of recreation with no holds barred?  As in much of life, there are no easy answers.  If sex, like any other part of our lives, becomes an obsession, then it is unlikely to provide positive experiences.  But drawing a line or making ‘rules’ is also tremendously difficult and likely to fail in its intent.  We are, as always, faced with ambiguity and the challenge of finding the best path possible in a changing world.                                               

A Skeptic’s Thoughts About Crypto

Disclaimer:  I am no expert on crypto currency or the blockchain technology underlying it, but I do have 45 years of experience in a world driven by technological change and hype.

Part of the early allure of crypto currencies like bitcoin was the idea that they could replace and improve upon the existing financial world of banks, currency exchanges, and other financial service components that were seen as bureaucratic, costly and archaic.  Blockchain technology offered the tantalizing prospect of money flowing in the world without third party inconvenience and control.  The technology would allow two entities to exchange funds directly with an assured chain of custody and security that would be impervious to fraud, theft or scrutiny.

 

To me this type of perfect world hypothetical is reminiscent of so many of the software technologies that I saw come and go over the last 30 years.  And like so many of its predecessors, the blockchain technology that launched the crypto coin world does indeed have some very attractive features.  It promises to allow transactions to be conducted in complete security with an impenetrable and unalterable ‘ledger’ or chain of custody.

 

But the immediate application of this super-hyped technology to a form of currency unleashed a torrent of speculation and get-rich schemes evangelized by messianic tech wizzes and, later, various famous talking heads.

 

A currency utilizing blockchain technology and avoiding standard banking and financial markets may seem blissful to many stick-it-to-the-man types, but it doesn’t take a lot of insight to realize that there is a reason for financial markets and regulating organizations.  When there is no referee at all, the game becomes wildly chaotic and is easy prey for the most unscrupulous characters – the drug gangs, the scam experts, the tax-cheats, the porn industry, the con artists.  It also becomes one huge pyramid or ponzi scheme.

 

The human notion of 'value' is strange and abstract in many ways.  Gold and art are traded as 'fungible' items but their value is purely a construct of human imagination.  Food, shelter and clothing have value that is at last partly based on actual utility.  Currencies are also constructs, but they have utility as a means of facilitating commerce and exchange.  When they change radically it is typically because the country associated with that currency (and guaranteeing it) is experiencing economic problems.

How in the world can one believe that a currency rising and falling as wildly as cryptocurrency can become a trusted means for normal commerce?  While it is true that all currencies, and for that matter all things that we put a price on, have a value that is tied to a perceived worth, the world currencies at least have a basis for their valuations – the economic and political systems that back them up.  A crypto currency has nothing but the lemming-like tributes from true believers and a pseudo-techie aura of inevitability.  And FOMO can only go so far in sustaining a fad or a movement.  At some point reason must prevail.

Is there a role for blockchain technology?  Definitely!  There are many transactions that would benefit from being conducted through blockchain.  And there is definitely money to be made in a more traditional sense by investing in the technology itself and earning real world profits as it finds means to provide a service.

 

But in my view, using blockchain to move money would create more problems than it would solve.  We already have rapidly growing inequality of wealth and income in the world.  Crypto currency would make financial dealings and wealth accumulation even more opaque than they are now, making it significantly more difficult for nations and municipalities to tax and monitor the situation.  We may all hate the bureaucracy and intrusive nature of taxes, but imagine a world that no longer has the ability to monitor and redistribute wealth for purposes of social progress, infrastructure development, education and healthcare.

 

Technological bandwagons are very seductive, because they lend an air of sophistication to their promoters and create a fervent desire for others to become part of the in-crowd.  It is so easy to compare each new idea to past technologies that made millions for those who were courageous and wise enough to embrace them.  Toss in a lot of technobabble and concepts that most people don’t really understand, and you have a perfect scenario for conning millions out of their hard-earned savings.  

 

And like all pyramid schemes, the stories of fantastic earnings by the few at the top of the pyramid are enough to pull in the hordes at the bottom.  But at some point, the magic fades and the music stops.  It is only a matter of time.