There are many gems in this article, but my favorite quote has to be:
"Pornography really does, unlike other addictions, biologically cause direct release of the most perfect addictive substance," Satinover said. "That is, it causes masturbation, which causes release of the naturally occurring opioids. It does what heroin can't do, in effect."
Anyone want to give me odds on whether or not this was a biased panel of experts?
I don't doubt the veracity of their opinion. Hell, I can anecdotally prove it to be true by pointing out examples of how it effected me at one point: I used to bring my laptop to work, plug it to the phone line (Big Brother can't monitor web activity that way) and surf for porn at lunchtime...which led to a daily jack-off session in the men's room. It had spun out of control when garden-variety porn wasn't effective anymore, and I needed to get "higher". When I started getting turned on by women humping horses, really fat chicks, and midgets, I knew I'd gone too far and needed rehab.
I'd say porn addiction is probably a gateway obsession to hobbying...any thoughts on that?
Yeah. I think you are looking at effect and not cause. I think that you take away one outlet and someone will seek out another. I think that it is only a society trying to reign in the most sensual of its members, by making illegal the outlets for those people, whether givers or takers, that make it seem "aberrent" the expression of those thoughts. Sad, sad, sad.
Victimless crimes. Let people be who they are, instead of trying to regulate what types of outlets are "moral" and what aren't. If no one is a victim, who gives a fuck?
Revenge of the God squad.
We all need to have our internal brain activity monitored by Congress. Why monitor the internet when the brain itself is at thought?
/Zin
Should all freedoms be limited according to those who have problems with them? I've been using the internet to cruise porn since the mid-90s, before that, I collected it clandestinely, in various ways, for years. I've never "cruised" for porn at work, (aside from TER discussion groups perhaps) my pattern of desire has never changed from nude women, M on F, or F on F sex.
Doing what you were doing, it sounds to me like you went into it, excuse the term, somewhat pleasure starved. When I first started hobbying, my roommates called me obsessed, but this passed after several months.
As for porn as the "gateway" to the hobby, if you're going to include that, you might as well include any sex, excepting of course, the sorry sexless marriage that's so approved by this society. People need pleasure, and I hate to say, nature has wired us for sex. A suppression of sex means that people are bound to seek pleasure in some strange, low yield ways. Perhaps violence. Meanwhile, they are going to be particularly unlikeable.
I said before, an addiction can only be defined by your "relationship" to your habit. As in human relationships, there are good ones, and there are bad ones. If it strengthens you it's good, if it weakens you, it's bad. I don't like this pattern of defining anything pleasurable as an addiction-- especially pointing to "evidence" like the release of endorphines, of which anything you find enjoyable should do.
(Notwithstanding, there are some things that it's difficult to have a "good relationship" with. Cigarettes for instance. That is, it's still possible to have a good relationship with nicotine, a very useful drug, but cigarettes will always be a stupid way of delivering it.)
I much rather get voyeuristic pleasure than harvesting low-yield pleasure of five hours of TV and six servings of junkfood a day, which, right now, appears to be the most socially approved pleasures that there are.
/Zin
-- Modified on 11/20/2004 10:45:27 PM
-- Modified on 11/20/2004 10:50:43 PM
Like those watching the porn aren't going to do it anyway?
What a sad fucker.
This reminds me of something in "Atlas Shrugged", where the government took away basic pleasures because it made the general populace think of happiness too much.
Thanks, Slim. It is important to know the enemy.
Oh, and thanks, Snowy...as always, the perfect smiley for every occasion.
Should give private schools a nice boost.
...be it television violence or pr0n or whatever.
IT DEPENDS.
Some people will get addicted to porn because they have addictive personalities. Some, like me, can take it or leave it (despite my being a very visual person). Some kids will act out movie violence becaus they are impressionable. Most won't.
Politicians and scientists and whomever keep trying to stuff the entire population into a single pigeonhole and legislate accordingly. And, of course, it fails, and consenting adults who just want a no strings fuck once in a while have to sneak around and wonder if the next person they meet is LE. Meanwhile, the Al Queda sleepr cell down the block (that just came in across the effectively open border) is building the radiological bomb in their basement. Oooooo! Don't get me started!! 
Ah, bugger them all.
I guess I can experiment now with crack and feel no moral repercussion.
CTToI.
It's sexual pleasure itself, which does indeed, as Carol Queen points out in her comments at the end of the article, "light up the brain".
There are many people in our society who are very worried that somewhere out there, someone is experiencing sexual pleasure. The scary thing is that these people now have a lot more political power over our lives than they did before the rise of the religious right.
Get involved in politics, and don't let them control your life.
let me suggest this is a topic that goes beyond politics to control. Control of your behavior and ultimately control of your mind. It is not enough for some people to believe deeply in what they believe (God, Buddha, The Force) they need something to fight against to prove their faith. That something has alternately been any of the seven deadly sins but lust was always near the top of the list. By continually raising that bogeyman and fighting it with all their strength, those who would control us get to demonstrate their faith by fighting sin as they see it. Ironically, it is the weakness of their faith that drives them to continually demonstrate its strength--sort of like the shortest guy in the bar who picks the most fights to prove how tough he really is.
I remember as a kid, in the early 1960's, seeing my first playboy...WOW...the other day I was at a friends house and was helping her 12 yr. old son figure out a problem on his computer when we came upon his Internet History. At his age I got to look at breasts and legs...this kid had anal, cumshots and S&M in his computer history. Personally, I feel sorry for kids.
I enjoy internet porn as much as the next guy. But am sick of the Larry Flynnts of the world trying to wrap themselves in the "free speech" flag. My guess is the founding fathers had no idea what the future had to offer. The internet is a public domain. No matter how closely parents "gaurd" their kids...It is out there and a huge temptation to kids. If you have kids, take time to learn where to look on their computers for things they should not have. Protect our kids!!!