Posted on 07/30/2011 7:13:52 PM PDT by Recovering_Democrat
It is hard to ignore how many highly visible men in recent years (indeed, months) have behaved in sexually self-destructive ways. Some powerful men have long been sexually voracious; unlike today, though, they were far more discreet and generally used much better judgment in order to cover their tracks.
Of course, the heightened technological ability nowadays to expose private behavior is part of the reason for this change. But that is precisely the point: so many of the men caught up in sex-tinged scandals of late have exposed themselves – sometimes literally – through their own willing embrace of text messages, Twitter, and other indiscreet media.
What is driving this weirdly disinhibited decision-making? Could the widespread availability and consumption of pornography in recent years actually be rewiring the male brain, affecting men’s judgment about sex and causing them to have more difficulty controlling their impulses?
There is an increasing body of scientific evidence to support this idea. Six years ago, I wrote an essay called “The Porn Myth,” which pointed out that therapists and sexual counselors were anecdotally connecting the rise in pornography consumption among young men with an increase in impotence and premature ejaculation among the same population. These were healthy young men who had no organic or psychological pathology that would disrupt normal sexual function.
(Excerpt) Read more at globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com ...
This dopamine effect explains why pornography tends to become more and more extreme over time: ordinary sexual images eventually lose their power, leading consumers to need images that break other taboos in other kinds of ways, in order to feel as good. Moreover, some men (and women) have a “dopamine hole” – their brains’ reward systems are less efficient – making them more likely to become addicted to more extreme porn more easily.
Sounds like what Christian anti-porn crusaders have been saying for years.
I think of the gentleman I met several years ago-a fine itinerant Bible teacher. He said he had been keeping a confidential list of men who were once outstanding expositors of the Scripture, capable and respected men of God... who have shipwrecked their faith on the shoals of moral defilement. During the previous week, he said, he had entered the name of forty-two in his book. This sad, sordid statistic, he claims, caused him to be extra cautious and discreet in his own life. Perhaps, by now, he has added a couple dozen more.
A chill ran down my spine when he told that story. No one is immune. You're not. I'm not. Lust is no respecter of persons...lts alluring voice can infiltrate the most intelligent mind and cause its victim to believe its lies and respond to its appeal. And beware-it never gives up...it never runs out of ideas. Bolt your front door and it'll rattle at the bedroom window, crawl into the living room through the TV screen, or wink at you out of a magazine in the den...
Lust is persistent. If it's knocked on your door once, it'll knock again. And again. You are safe just so long as you draw upon your Savior's strength. Try to handle it yourself and you'll lose-every time. This is why we are warned again and again in the New Testament to flee sexual temptations. Remember, lust is committed to wage war against your soul-in a life-and-death struggle-in hand- to-hand combat. Don't stand before this mortal enemy and argue or fight in your own strength-run for cover...lf you get yourself into a situation that leaves you defenseless and weak, if your door is left even slightly ajar, you may be sure that this ancient enemy will kick it open with six-guns blazing. So don't leave it open. Don't give lust a foothold-or even a toehold.
Col. 3:5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature; sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.
When I was 17 we had a country neighbor who was 16. Now she nearly drove me crazy. She would lead me to water but she would not let me drink.
She later won the local county beauty contest. She deserved it too.
“unlike today, though, they were far more discreet and generally used much better judgment in order to cover their tracks”
then how do you know they existed?
Doubt it, does anyone know how to keep squirrels off your desk,????
Pornography has become more explicit over the years. In the ‘50s and ‘60s, for example, Playboy magazine didn’t show full frontal nudity. Now they do and have for years.
I don’t read any of those magazines, but I understand that some such as Hustler, now show urination and sexual situations with naked men and women. Things have gone from various stages of undress to full sexual situations.
And with the internet, I’m sure it’s no holds barred on what you can find.
Is pornography driving men crazy?
Yes, but only when I have to use my left hand to turn the ignition key.
If God says it’s not good for us, it’s not.
No, it’s making them go blind!
Which reference do you go to for that?
pepper spray, and they’ll remember
I go mostly to the teaching that Jesus gave in the gospels:
“You have heard that it was said to those of old,‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.” (Matthew 5)
Here we are told that to commit adultery even with our eyes makes us hellbound, it is better to be sightless; a pretty strong condemnation.
Then if you search against all the warnings against adultery as the soul destroying activity that it is, this just undergirds the warning.
I find the plea in Proverbs 5 to be especially poignant:
” My son, keep your father’s command,
And do not forsake the law of your mother.
Bind them continually upon your heart;
Tie them around your neck.
When you roam, they[b] will lead you;
When you sleep, they will keep you;
And when you awake, they will speak with you.
For the commandment is a lamp,
And the law a light;
Reproofs of instruction are the way of life,
To keep you from the evil woman,
From the flattering tongue of a seductress.
Do not lust after her beauty in your heart,
Nor let her allure you with her eyelids.
For by means of a harlot
A man is reduced to a crust of bread;
And an adulteress[c] will prey upon his precious life.
Can a man take fire to his bosom,
And his clothes not be burned?
Can one walk on hot coals,
And his feet not be seared?
So is he who goes in to his neighbor’s wife;
Whoever touches her shall not be innocent.
People do not despise a thief
If he steals to satisfy himself when he is starving.
Yet when he is found, he must restore sevenfold;
He may have to give up all the substance of his house.
Whoever commits adultery with a woman lacks understanding;
He who does so destroys his own soul.
This statement really irritates me. It's the same logic used by Eleanor Clift to excuse Clinton for his escapades. Are we supposed to think that Anthony Weiner did his texting etc. because he was a powerful and thus sexually aggressive man? That's pathetic. What is a ‘powerful’ man? Someone who doesn't have the power to control their own appetites? Someone who is too narcissistic to look beyond themselves? If you can't control yourself you're not that ‘powerful’.
The Marquis de Sade wrote all his stuff before the advent of internets porn. Nabokov, too. Lady Chatterly’s Lover.
Seems that there have been a number of high-profile sex scandals before Algor invented cheap free gigabytes of pr0n.
Sex involves a balance of libido and aggression. Highly aggressive men, such as those driven to seek power, are likely to have sexual preferences colored by aggression more than the average. It has always been thus. And it has been noted by psychological observers for many years that as time passes, sexuality becomes more dominated by aggression at the expense of libido.
What is important about porn is that it allows the free flow of aggression into the sexual drive in the absence of a love object evoking the balancing effects of attachment and love. It accelerates the objectification of the sexual image and essentially turns the woman into a fetish instead of a person.
Doubt it, does anyone know how to keep squirrels off your desk,????
Search youtube for squirrel catapult
I believe Winston Churchill claimed that he had a low sex drive which allowed him to concentrate on more important things.
Of course old Winston had a bunch of kids so it wasn’t all that low.
The idea that a woman has complete domain over her own body —isn’t that an idea central to feminism..?
Sounds like intolerance to me....
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