Think of this as a continuation to the last post. Why? this article. Made me think. A lot. I never really thought about it, but at one level, porn is really no better or worse than any other addiction - drugs, gambling, what-have-you. It has just as much destructive capability as any of those. OK, so maybe you won't die from porn... unless someone got jealous and killed you, I suppose. But hey, I like my analogy. So let it be.

Anyway, on that, I think it should be discussed and dealt with more openly. If it's such an epidemic, it should be treated as such, instead of being shoved into a corner.

The other point the article made that I wanted to discuss was males not being naturally monogamous. I've heard this before. If indeed we are nothing more than highly (some would disagree on how high) evolved animals, I suppose it's true. With [most] animals, the males only thought is to produce as many offspring as possible. It's for this reason that male lions will kill off all cubs produced by another male when he takes over the pride. He wants his genetics to be passed on.

Despite this, though, we have progressed past that. Monogamy, artificial though it may be, is a good thing. It encourages a level of intimacy that isn't possible with multiple partners. When you have only one, you tend to hang on to them much tighter.

So where am I going with all this? Well, I'm trying to decide if it's a cheap way out to claim base instincts make males seek out extramarital/relationship (don't have to be married to cheat, after all) affairs, including porn. After all, if we can blame it on the monkeys, not our fault, eh? I don't think so, though. We don't [usually] go around killing people just because we feel like it (War excluded - that's a giant leap backwards if ever there was one).

Also of note, I was thinking about my "Stop pushing your morals on other people" bit. Yes, it's all well and good, until you get to something that's universally agreed to be a Bad Thing [TM]: murder, rape, theft, and so on. These are still committed on a daily basis. So obviously some people don't have a problem with them. If it's right for them, who are we to contradict them? And in the case of theft, to pull an example out, people's opinions change constantly. Illegal downloading, for instance. I would hazard a guess that the majority of people online do it. It's still illegal; I don't disagree there. I don't consider it wrong, for reasons I'm not going to go into here. But it is still very much illegal. Or how about in case of emergency? The old question, "If your family was starving, and there was a case of food just laying in front of a store, would you take it"? Many people would say yes. Still theft. Justifiable, perhaps, but still theft.

The best I can come up with the above is that you should be free to do what you want so long as it doesn't interfere with other people's ability to do the same. Murder, rape, and other such crimes against someone would do so. So would theft, if it was their own personal property. I think I'm going to have to go with "It's always wrong, but sometimes justifiable."

I really haven't managed to make any points at all. But that's OK, I guess. Food for thought. Still not sure whether or not porn is ever acceptable, which was the original topic. But no matter. Thinking is good.