I suspect those who vehemently oppose pornography (which depicts primal human impulses and desires in graphic detail) oppose reality in their own life. They oppose disclosure, live in a cocoon-like state of denial, and are determined to spread the shame that's been pounded into their skulls.The above thought occurred to me for the upteenth time as I sat on a plane watching the UK documentary Hardcore Profits, a terribly pious, predictable piece of journalistic piffle hosted by a stuck-up English bloke (Tim Samuels) who spends the entire show "exposing" the fact that communications companies like Vodafone and cable systems around the US indirectly profit from the transmission of pornography over their signals and cables. My reaction was: So what?!
His ludicrous claim is tantamount to a judge claiming that the phone company facilitated child molestation because one of their customers called an underaged girl to set up a "date".Samuels thinks he's a thoroughly clever clogs by confronting a Christian investment group with the mind-blowing(!) revelation that one of the companies they invest in also pipes pornography through their cable system. Again: So what?!
Tim Samuels is described on Wikipedia as a "British Michael Moore without the political agenda"; I say "poppycock" to that. This "award-winning" muckraker works like heck to get everybody's knickers in a big, thick knot about pornography being streamed through some of the channels various multi-nationals operate. He tries the oldest, most cynical trick in the book when confronting elderly churchgoers with news that some of the money they're putting in the Sunday collction plate could be going into the hands of pornographers(!). The connection he makes is as spurious as accusing a McDonald's worker of profiting from pornography by selling a porno director and his kids a dozen Big Macs.
Samuels' ultimate agenda, of course, is to get pornography removed from all screens (large, small, and mid-sized) by shaming anybody remotely connected to it.
At the core of this agenda is his own shame about sex
Isn't it always?
Like America's Christian Coalition, who have big issues with S.E.X., Samuels has no problem with companies that pipe extreme violence through their systems. It's accepetable, by implication, to show a head being blown off or a belly stabbed repeatedly, but burn ye in hell for common carrying graphic footage of fellow humans engaged in natural acts of sexuality (sex of any type between real humans is natural, by the way).
Companies like Vodaphone are not broadcasters; they don't cast anything out there broadly; they simply provide a democratic conduit through which media is piped.
Personally, I don't care for censorship of any type; I'm not troubled, however, if access to adult material is confined to adults. Samuels disagrees with me.Clearly, he and his puppet masters don't trust adults, and probably doesn't themselves, either.
His next attempt to bolster his wrong-headed cause is introducing us to a bunch of thickheads in an African village who have had access to internet porn and pirated porn DVD's. Due to this exposure to pornography, Samuels claims -- and the thickheads admit -- they have taken to raping various village women in order to emulate the "evil" stuff they've seen on porn videos such as anal sex(!).
Not once does Samuels castigate these morons for rape or ask them why they think rape is acceptable in the first place. Isn't their thinking the the failure of education and an entire culture? Or is porn entirely to blame for their immorality and criminality? These raping rubes are adults, and it's very convenient for them, isn't it, to blame porn piped to their mudhuts, produced by US companies such as Anabolic Video, for their aberrant behavior?
Memo to Samuels: Porn isn't to blame. THEY are to blame. The lesson is simple: If you want to have sex with a lass, lads, ask first. If she says no, go play with yourself, or organize an all-male circle jerk.This English twit, relentless in his pursuit of spurious cause and effect, then travels to LA to meet the head of Anabolic (like he's relevant to the discussion!). He asks head honcho Chris Alexander if he knows his videos are being seen by black villagers in Africa? Alexander, who isn't concerned, and isn't conscious of Samuels' agenda, is keen to promote his product, so he informs Samuels that his pornography has wide global distribution.
More than likely, the DVD's the village rapists saw were pirated; it's unlikely Anabolic has legit distribution contracts with a surfeit of African nations. Alexander's presence in the video adds nothing to Samuels' thesis.Samuels' mission to eradicate porn by fanning global shame is a sad mission, indeed. It is ironic, too, that he confronts the multi-nationals on their (indirectly) profiting from porn while ignoring the amorality of their standard corporate practises -- practises that, as cited in the doco The Corporation, amount to sociopathic behavior.
In attacking hotel chains (most of them) that carry porn on their in-room channels, he's attempting to create a storm in an English teacup. Patrons are not forced or coerced into watching porn, and it is restircted to adults. Porn is a choice, as is a mainstream movie, a foreign flick, or a Jet Lee actioner. The fact that porn (graphic depictions of diverse sexual activity between human beings) is so demonized by idiots of this type is evidence that, in the 21st century, S.E.X. is still a big issue for the immature and seriously fucked up amongst us.
Samuel expects us to reel from the screen horrified that phone companies and cable companies and porno companies are making billions from porn (!). Again, so what?! Porn's a business, a legal business, with hundreds of millions of consumers. Porno makers have families, kids to put through school, wives, husbands, sons, mothers and daughters. They live next door and they're just like you and me.
Personally, I find myself reeling from the way banks and financial institutions rape their customers with outrageous fees and pathetic interest rates. I gape in in horror at the fact that banks lend my money to other people and reap profits from these people that I never share in. The exploitation of customers by big business is what horrifies me. At least porn delivers something tangible. When was the last time a bank delivered you an orgasm?
In a global village where the actual presence, and availablity, of child pornography has no correlation to the height of demonic fear associated with its existence, all sexuality now presents a threat to those who live pathetic lives of denial, insecurity, and fear (incited, for the most part, by religion).
The boogeyman, once nucleur, now swings a penis.
