I have a lengthier post on my blog about Dr. John Nutter, the UT administrator accused of dowloading and viewing child pornography on his UT computer, but I have to admit I am pretty shocked by the case. How can someone throw away his entire career like this?
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Michael is a historian, journalist, and geek who writes on a wide variety of topics, about some of which he actually knows a few things. When not plotting world domination, he enjoys playing guitar, gardening, and plotting ways to outwit the squirrels that pillage his bird feeders.
It's clearly a sickness.
And reading your commentary, I really wonder if he is a "pedophile." I suppose he is--in latin this just means "child lover"--but the phrase connotes (to me at least) molestation, which, so far at least, he hasn't been accused of.
Yes, I am using the strict definition of the term, ShaneH.
Nutter has not been accused of any real-world molestation, and his attorney Jerome Phillips was quick to point this out.
this is a form of addictive behavior. We studied at length in psych - and I never could really wrap my mind around it either. It's a horrifying concept to most people. But obviously this is way out of his control.
It's sad.
Agreed, kateb, that this behavior is beyond the capability of most people to understand. I think most of us are hard-wired with a sort of "protection" gene that makes us want to shield children from harm.
Heck, I was just at the BMV and saw some angry woman yank her little kid - maybe 2 years old - by one arm. The thought crossed my mind to step in, but a kind lady behind the counter defused the scene with a stick of red licorice.
Pedophiles are either born without this instinct, or their life experiences (say, childhood sexual abuse) override this coding, in my opinion.
Whatever their experience or miswiring is - it is behavior that is instinctively oppositional to most people's most basic animal behavior.
And that is to protect their young and the young of the pack. Unbelievable, but it happens.
-- holding a modern doctorate and not comprehending that institutional networks have monitoring against this sort of thing.
Still ... {as GuestZero caaaarefully raises his flame shield} ... it's appalling for our society to illegalize things like looking at pictures, raising plants, buying and selling amongst adults, and the like. I call this "pre-criminalization". We routinely criminalize acts that we imagine lead to actual harm. The movie "Minority Report" was actually ironic for our society, for those who noticed.
Some will claim that legalizing child pornography will only increase the pressure back along the production string, from the demand, and THAT is the harm that is done. I concur ... but only that that is a natural effect, and that the ACTUAL CRIME that is being committed is subjecting children to the humiliation of disrobing, posing, and of course the more horrifying conduction of sexual acts. A photograph of these crimes should still not be illegal. We enable crimes all the time in how societies must be structured.
I don't expect to ever make headway against the tide of common sentiment against the full liberties I advocate. (That's why I keep my flame shield handy.)
For those who have their bonnets too full of bees to hear any of this, I cordially invite them to look up {google ... google ...} David Hamilton and Irina Ionesco. We have to be careful what we call "child pornography", since such a book of photos may be FREELY AVAILABLE on Amazon.com and shippable to the United States ... and as well, available on the shelves (or e-shelves) of Barnes and Noble. (Then again, it could be a situation like that one that caught Mark Foley -- whose online sex talk with underage pages was illegal (from his own legislation, natch!) yet NOT illegal in other forms. This link goes into some detail.)
behavior is learned. American culture is riddled with generations of boys growing into men who see pornography at early ages...then as they get older have access to porn theatres...strip clubs...adult book stores..
For society to think it can have abundant and unlimited access to legal pornography...and not wind up with a bunch of perverts running around...then that society is just fooling itself...
... has not made Europeans into raving perverts. Although America is not Europe, it would be worth studying the aspects of their culture whereby pornography has so little a disruptive effect there.
Personally I think that America's enormous sexual reluctance is the cause of the "blowback" (now, no jokes there, fellas) experienced with exposure to sexual themes. We are fundamentally too uptight about Human sexuality. We still lie on a daily basis to children and teenagers by telling them that "abstinence is the best policy" -- but you can't get better about something if you don't practice. At the very least, avoiding a social issue doesn't actually address the social issue, now, does it?
You should read the PKD Novella that Minority Report was based on. One of his better works, in my opinion.
And I agree with you on this, more or less. The wake of recent high profile child sex abuse cases has made our society overreact here. If I were to draw a graphic scene of two consenting (underage) teenagers having sex, I'd be violating child porn laws. Let alone the fact that it's a work of fiction drawn from my own hand.
Now, I agree that one has very few legitimate reasons to draw a graphic depiction of such an event, but nevertheless, why should it be illegal?
The CW is that it encourages child molesters. I find it hard to believe that a child molester wouldn't ever have molested anyone if only he hadn't seen that thumbnail sketch of whatever.
Just to make a correction to this: pais, paidos means "child" in Ancient Greek; philia means "love" also in Greek. Ped means "foot" in Latin. So the word pedophile is Greek, not Latin. Otherwise, it would mean "lover of feet".