In this glorious modern age, people seem all too eager to jump into things. From relationships and marriages, to credit cards and bank loans—even signing up for a phone plan just to have the latest and greatest smartphone on the market. Now more than at any other point in recorded history, people seem to be driven more and more by their impulses, regardless of what may result from it. We’re told ad nauseum, “Do what feels right for you…do what makes you happy…”, never thinking of the unforeseen consequences hiding on the other side. [Proverbs 14:12]
Why do we do this? I think we [society] become intrigued by the romance of impulse—the elation of saying, “Que sera, sera”, all while allowing ourselves to be carried away as if floating out from the shore. We chase pleasure and the ever elusive “good feeling”, unaware of what lay on the other side of those choices when the dopamine hit wears off and reality sets in. We think we understand it–this period dubbed the “honeymoon” phase, but we don’t really. Especially when the current carries us too far from land where the waves are bigger, and our feet struggle to find the bottom. Then, in the struggle to find a place to place our feet, most people discover they’ve gone too deep into something for which they never signed up.
This sort of thing feels most prevalent when it comes to modern [Western] attitudes around the subject of acceptable sexual activity.
The Slow Descent
The drift away from traditional attitudes with regards to sexual activity took a sharp turn in the 1960’s. The decade of free love and unbridled drug use was also the one that saw the severe rise of pornography, with the likes of Playboy, Penthouse, and Hustler magazines becoming household names. Young people, artists, and celebrities at the time, seemed so eager to push boundaries. They chased after the things their parents would have thought taboo, that they gave little thought to their actions and just did what “felt good”.
With the ardent rise of sexual activity in the 1960’s, it’s little wonder why the early years of the following decade saw the favorable ruling of Roe v. Wade. From there, it seemed as though every decade that followed took up the challenge of lowering the bar even further. We’ve reached the point in our glorious modern age where pornography is a celebrated mainstream profession. Drag shows are being performed in front of children in various venues, and gay marriage was codified by the US Supreme Court in 2015. Whether wittingly or not, the swinging 60’s opened a Pandora’s Box of all kinds of deviant sexual behaviors that, over time, became accepted. Things that were once left to the dark corners of seedy clubs became viewed as simply a harmless vice—something that was acceptable, so long as it was kept behind closed doors.
However, that is not how this sort of thing works. Once the box is opened, it is next to impossible to close it up again, and such things become “normal”.
The Slippery Slope Of Eventuality
Naturally, one of the consequences of normalizing, and in most cases, celebrating unrestrained sexual activity, is the push to continue bringing other abhorrent activities under that umbrella. For instance, there has been a push on various fronts over the last decade to remove the [rightful] stigma from pedophilia. The more “educated” among us have even taken to labeling it as a “sexual orientation”. It\’s just an attempt to soften the “ick” factor by calling the perpetrators “minor attracted persons” or “MAPS”—as though the latter is any better than the former. In 2015, prominent left-wing periodical Salon published an opinion piece titled “I’m a pedophile, not a monster” in which a graphic designer discussed his “sexuality”.
With so much attention being given to the LGBTQIA+ “community” over the last few years, it shouldn\’t be surprising to see such efforts emerging to add “P” for pedophile to the acronym—even though some within the so-called “community” wish to distance themselves from such an inclusion. However, it seems to me if you’re going to create an entire “community” centered around one’s sexual desires, you shouldn’t be surprised when someone who desires children in such a way feels like they should have a place in said “community”.
Time marches on: harmless vice turns into an “alternative lifestyle” that just wants to be left alone. Further down the road, that “alternative lifestyle” becomes less alternative, and now wants to be normalized. But once something is normalized, any critics of said lifestyles become quickly ostracized and cast out from what has become the “new normal” of society.
Nothing New Under the Sun
The “new normal” though is nothing new at all. It is the same song sung by every decadent and self-indulgent culture throughout the ages. It is a song about seeking pleasure at any cost, even if it be at the expense of another. Whether that expense is using them as a means of gratification, or silencing them for daring to speak a word toward restraining such behaviors. Again, once Pandora’s Box has been opened, it is nearly impossible to put what escaped back under lock and key.
“What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which one can say, “Look! This is something new”? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time.” -Ecclesiastes 1:9-10