Ongkingco
There were mixed reactions to Hugh Hefner’s recent death. Some regretted losing a taboo liberating icon they mistook as the father of pornography. Others are celebrating an uncertain triumphal relief against dehumanizing industry.
Hefner, and anyone else for that matter, is definitely not porn’s founder. Pornography has been around even before he was. He simply beat other would-be competitors in glamorizing porn.
As Hugh is laid to rest beside Marylyn Monroe’s remains, his legacy of lust and hedonism continues to numb men’s consciences. The evils of pornography — turning men and women into profitable and disposable commodities of pleasure — now thrive under the guise of a sophisticated lifestyle for men.
Hefner’s death is not a tipping point of the porn industry. Samuel D. James laments:
“We are only beginning to collect the evidence of pornography’s moral and political impact. … Sociologists have been suggesting for several years now that pornography stunts emotional and psychological well-being … Pornography addiction — which the industry, much like casinos, depends on for profits — almost always comes with associated symptoms of loneliness, laziness, apathy, and lack of rootedness. These aren’t peripheral concerns for conservatives. They’re signs of a civilizational crisis [Italics mine]. (Pornography is Worse than Feminism, First Things, 29-IX-2017)”
Hefner systematically laid a track of perdition for his followers to effectively reinforce and replicate, many times more devastating, with the help of the internet’s hyper-speed lanes.
Although Hefner’s sexual fantasy world shrunk with easy-free-anonymous access to pornography via laptops, smartphones and tablets, he already planted the seed of a “pornographic lifestyle” which would become the monster of internet pornography. This beast continues to grow and ravenously devour millions of individuals who become prisoners of their dark lustful worlds and are totally oblivious to family life and love.
Hefner himself was not exempt from the perverse effects of his lifestyle. Later in life, he was sadly dehumanized by his own addiction. Sandy Bentley, a former Playboy cover girl and girlfriend of Hugh, shockingly revealed:
“The heterosexual icon [Hefner] … had trouble finding satisfaction through intercourse; instead, he liked the girls to please each other while he masturbated and watched gay porn. (The Prodigy and the Playmate, Ben Wallace, cited from Read Mercer Schuchardt, in Pornography is Worse than Feminism, S. James, First Things, 29-IX-2017)”
The tipping point of porn, or a vague form of respite for our long unsatisfied angsts for its destruction, is not found in the demise of some celebrity icon, business enterprise or website. That would be totally naive, intellectually and spiritually indolent. Its tipping point lies in each one’s convictions and actions.
The height of pornography has already permeated the mainstream of society’s neural points, no one can claim total inoculation from porn. This immunity is not simply a satisfactory state of not watching or indulging in it.
More importantly, we are addressing the underlying attitude in pornography, that eventually becomes addictively destructive: the rejection of the person’s true dignity and calling as God’s image and likeness; converting persons into objects and maximizing their profitability mainly as pleasurable sexual ends. This very attitude can also thrive in the most casual family and social engagements even without a single pornographic trace.
Pornography’s tipping point is not its walls crumbling like those of Jericho. Rather, far from the walls of porn, we have to destroy the walls around our hearts built by our envy, anger, avarice, judgmental outlook of others, our indifferent, unforgiving and vengeful stance towards our neighbor, etc.
This is our tipping point! A conversion that constantly happens when we strive to understand and love persons integrally for who they are and helping them to be the children God wants them to become!
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