I’ve heard rumblings about how the UK plans to turn off internet porn in 2014 across my news networks, and finally read this New York Post article about it and…really?

Of course the first point everyone makes is: Good luck. Because the dark net is everywhere, and no amount of filtering is going to stop it. (Because, you know, China’s doing so well with its own censorship attempts! …oh wait.) It’s just ridiculous to even try. More so, my British-politics-experts peeps tell me this is a political move to distract from a terrible economy and will probably be reversed before it even is implemented. Okay then, business as usual!

But the thing that I come back to is: WHY?

I mean, will turning off internet porn, even if it was possible, suddenly make the country more productive? More frugal? More…moral? What is the point of this?

It seems that prudes of all stripes believe that sex itself is some kind of moral failing, that it is wrong and taints us and casts aspersions on our characters. It’s a secret, shameful thing that people might maybe do with the lights out but should not spend any time thinking about or, heaven forbid, talking about. They think that the very fact that porn exists somehow degrades their entire country.

But I don’t see it, and never have. We’re either grown adults able to make our own choices, or we’re not. And if we are not, then I want a set allowance to pay for my comic books, free room and board, and chocolate cake for my birthday because that’s what my parents always gave me.

I suppose I’m out of step with “mainstream” culture, that group of people who honestly believe that what someone gets off to (or with) in some mysterious way destroys the fabric of our culture.

I wonder when are we, as a species, going to grow up?

 

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