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Re: Lifehouse, credit cards, and the porn beast
Pete touched on an element that highlights the danger
of "tuning-out" with virtual flesh in A Different
Bomb. The imperative of pornographers to constantly
refresh their sites with pictures of fresh victims.
The pornography suppliers know perfectly well the
nature of the sex addiction gripping their customers:
one or two viewings of one picture or type of picture
and the shock/titillation value is gone. The next
round must be "better," more shocking, more extreme,
push the envelope just farther enough to spark a
thrill. The most effective siren call, it would
appear by what we see on TV, page 3 models, and what
we hear about sites like Avalanche, is to make the
models younger and the "action" more explicit. In sex
addiction this is known as escalation.
This is very perceptive.
That is why I am worried that Pete said on January 11,
"I've always been into pornography and I have used it
all my life." Was Pete immune from the escalation
that thousands of his fellows succumb to, and that the
the porn industry exploits to part them from their
money?
He was probably getting into it, but it certainly sounds like he was
repelled by what he found on the child porn sites. He's also commented
about wanting to protect Joe from finding such things. I expect they're
very emotionally scarring.
You're right, Kevin, that pornography or the porn
impulse is deeply ingrained in western society. Its
huge. Where does it start and where does it end? Does
checking out the pretty young school girl qualify?
perhaps it depends on what you do with it. Is it a
passing fancy for a moment or does it lead one to make
a foray into a whole area of porn that the purveyors
have ready and waiting?
Yes, it's what you do with it. I'll go with the World Health Organization
(WHO) definition as the accurate one. Any person past puberty is
potentially sexually active and so it's natural to have an interest in them.
What culture you live in sets the age that's appropriate for sexual
activity. In our culture, that's 18, so before that you can look (and maybe
fantasize) but not touch. ;)
I DON'T think private fantasy should be criminalized. That guy who got
prison time for writing down his fantasies in a diary was shafted. It's
what Brian May is calling "thought control."
What to do about it? all I know is that governments
are not equipped to detect or address it and the
failure to acknowledge how banks, credit card
companies, and media are implicated does not help. The
private sector, though they certainly show no such
hesitation when it comes to tracking down music file
swapping (now affirmed by the U.S. courts to force
ISPs to identify suspects in this area) won't address
this because they are making billions off of it.
I think the reporter guy is right in tieing it to national security. Crime
networks could be as much a danger as Saddam.
We won't know for some time if ever what Pete was
thinking when he, in his words, "used a credit card to
enter a site advertising child porn." The suggestions
Kevin makes - like interupting TKAA to talk about it -
or setting up info booths at concerts or links to
legitimate organizations fighting it on his website -
would surely have been a better course.
Better, yes, but everyone would have ignored the whole thing.
Agreed that is 20/20 hindsight. In some ways, though,
I can't help but agree with Keith Richards approach:
"Dear Pete, shut up." Well its too late for that. I'm
praying that all is as he says and that he will emerge
from this to carry on the fight.
We'll see. Hopefully all went well today, and Pete's off to write an album
about it. Since everybody knows about it now, there's no reason to keep it
quiet on advice from his attorney.
keets
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