"I think that a lot of people believe that, by exploring something scary, they may find the scariest thing of all, and that is that there is no end; that once you start down that road, not only can you never go back, but you can't ever stop either; that you necessarily must keep exploring and exploring and exploring until you HAVE TO explore previously-thought hard limits like bestiality and child molestation and rape and murder because, once you throw out the rules preventing you from doing things, what's to stop you from doing anything?"
You're absolutely right. On the religious side it's the argument of "original sin" (in the Abrahamic faiths, other beliefs have other names for it) that says we're all tainted with evil & if we don't avoid it and keep anything to do with it locked away we'll simply go crazy with it. On the non-religious side you'll get the argument that we're all basically animals with just a thin veneer of civilization, so anything that puts a crack in the veneer threatens to unleash it wholesale.
In the US this's compounded by the Protestant ethic that says the only way to rein in impulses is to never let them go even a little because if you do you'll HAVE to do more & more. It's been reflected in a lot of things like labeling everything an "addiction" even when such an identification seems specious. I saw someone posting recently about how he wishes he could get over his pornography "addiction" and when questioned he explained he uses it "once or twice a month" to get off. He's not in a committed relationship and it's his only sexual outlet. He feels the once or twice a month is an "addiction" because porn is bad & he "knows" it eventually won't be enough and the next thing you know he'll need it every day until eventually he ends up "murdering hookers like Ted Bundy."
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Date: 1/20/12 12:54 am (UTC)From: (Anonymous)You're absolutely right. On the religious side it's the argument of "original sin" (in the Abrahamic faiths, other beliefs have other names for it) that says we're all tainted with evil & if we don't avoid it and keep anything to do with it locked away we'll simply go crazy with it. On the non-religious side you'll get the argument that we're all basically animals with just a thin veneer of civilization, so anything that puts a crack in the veneer threatens to unleash it wholesale.
In the US this's compounded by the Protestant ethic that says the only way to rein in impulses is to never let them go even a little because if you do you'll HAVE to do more & more. It's been reflected in a lot of things like labeling everything an "addiction" even when such an identification seems specious. I saw someone posting recently about how he wishes he could get over his pornography "addiction" and when questioned he explained he uses it "once or twice a month" to get off. He's not in a committed relationship and it's his only sexual outlet. He feels the once or twice a month is an "addiction" because porn is bad & he "knows" it eventually won't be enough and the next thing you know he'll need it every day until eventually he ends up "murdering hookers like Ted Bundy."
So yes, you've hit the nail on the head.