2.19.2007

Victimless

I have seen parents who say to their children, “If you are going to smoke, I don’t want you smoking in the house. If you are going to drink alcohol, I don’t want you to bring alcohol into the house. If you are going to have sex, I want you to use protection. If you are going to have your boyfriend stay overnight, I want to see him sleeping on the couch in the living room when I get up in the morning. If you have a car accident, I want you to get it fixed yourself.” And then they turn to me and say, “See? We’re teaching our children responsibility.”

The parents glow with an air of self-satisfied serenity.

In reality, they’re like the eye of a hurricane, calm and peaceful, blind to the storm spreading moral chaos all around them.

And this “serenity” is the attitude behind a tolerance for “victimless” sex.

“What’s wrong with pornography or prostitution? As long as no one gets hurt, no harm is done,” we say.

But is it true that no harm is done? Maybe, like the parents in the example above, we just don’t want to see it. Maybe we don’t want to see the corruption, the fraud, the theft, the abuse, the murders even, that support our habits. Conveniently out of our sight, “no harm” is done.

And maybe you don’t want to see the children who have to suffer the agony of their parents’ adultery and divorce. Maybe you don’t want to see the children who have to see their parents’ alcoholism and drug abuse. Maybe you don’t want to see the children who have to see their parents prostitute themselves for affection, money, or drugs. Maybe you don’t want to see the children who are physically, sexually, and emotionally abused by their parents’ “lovers.”

“I just want to have fun. I don’t see any harm in that,” you say.

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