"Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites--in proportion as their love of justice is above their rapacity;--in proportion as their soundness and sobriety of understanding is above their vanity and presumption;--in proportion as they are more disposed to listen to the counsels of the wise and good, in preference to the flattery of knaves. Society cannot exist, unless a controlling power upon the will and appetite is placed somewhere: and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without. It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds can not be free. Their passions forge their fetters."
-- Edmund Burke
People don't realize that if things aren't turned around, in a generation or two the mayhem from feral humans will be so barbaric that totalitarian clampdown will be inevitable.
We could be witnessing the fall of America.
Wolf
Interesting observation. You might be correct. I've often wondered if there will be a breaking point when a large segment of society stands up and says, "Enough!" and instead of bloviating, something actually happens.
I don't disagree with this statement -- I disagree with the means so many social conservatives ( and big government leftists) use to try turn things around. By all means fight porn, etc. -- through private organizations, churches, the bully pulpit, grassroots communications, personal persuasion, by creating an unwelcome atmostphere for pornographers in your community, and on and on!
But when we start giving the federal government, especially, ever-increasing power to ban things by force (whether from the right or the left), we open the door and invite totalitarianism in. As citizens, we should take direct, personal action to create the kind of society we want -- instead of relying on more and more laws and courts to do it for us.