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Published Date: 23 June 2009
RICHARD Lucas (Letters, 16 June) is correct in his assessment of the evils of pornography. After all, back in his golden age of Victorian values, sexual crime was unheard of, and rape and child molestation simply did not exist before the mass proliferation of pornography some 30 years ago.
We can't have educated adults making decisions for themselves about what they watch in their own homes. That is clearly a job for morally superior Christians such as Mr Lucas.

ALAN HINNRICHS

Noran Ave

Dundee



Page 1 of 1

  • Last Updated: 22 June 2009 8:58 PM
  • Source: The Scotsman
  • Location: Edinburgh
 
1

Unimpressed one,

23/06/2009 08:16:02
Porn was alive and well in Victorian Britain, but the chavs didn't get hold of it then.
2

Strict Ivan Jellicoe,

Renfrew 23/06/2009 09:23:24
So the problem is one of scale and Richard Lucas' original letter then bears up to scrutiny.
3

SandyBottoms,

Edinburgh 23/06/2009 10:34:43
Wasn't the point that even though "the chavs didn't get hold of it then" there was still crime? Under Richard Lucas' theory, only people with access to porn would commit sex crimes, but I think if we examine the Victorian criminal records, we'll see fewer upperclass people in prison for sex crimes than the working/lower class, which sorta contradicts the idea that porn must lead to sex crimes.

Or is it that you're suggesting that only the educated shuold have access to pornography? Not something for the women and servants to look at?
4

WJohn,

Wonderland 23/06/2009 10:50:41
Wonder if the irony is too subtle?
5

richard l,

edinburgh 23/06/2009 10:53:30
"Under Richard Lucas' theory, only people with access to porn would commit sex crimes,"

Not at all - why ever would you think that?

I said nothing of the sort
6

Strict Ivan Jellicoe,

Renfrew 23/06/2009 11:08:41
You are overlooking the fact that porn is addictive and that in order for it to hold you, it has to become progressively more depraved. There are two many nutters out there who belive it and say to themselves “I want a share of this”
The 7 paedophiles who were sentenced two weeks ago at Edinburgh all peddled child porn. Harmless is it?
Lets turn it around on its head. Who is porn for the benefit of ?
7

Strict Ivan Jellicoe,

Renfrew 23/06/2009 11:18:23
Furthemore, that most of that crowd in Edinburgh were educated 'respectable' professional people. This affects everyone.
8

johnoldsmith,

Scotland 23/06/2009 13:39:29
The arguments here for banning porn can be applied to other phenomena, eg religion.

Religion has been responsible for the violent death, injury, abuse and disenfranchisement of millions, and still is. It has pogroms, inquisitions, witchhunts, persecutes women, gays, children etc. It has extreme elements which historically and still today kill freely in the name of a supernatural deity and, Strict Ivan Jellicoe, many of those who do the killing are otherwise 'educated respectable professional people', so to use your argument, "this affects everyone", not least because these killers are many in number and cover several faiths. Murder, rape, human rights abuses and wars in the name of this or that god are global phenomena.

And yet many others engage in religious belief without indulging in its evil side. No doubt there are many who look at porn without ever considering violent rape.

The numbers of those who have died violent deaths or been violated because of porn are but a grain of sand when compared to the beach of those who have died violently or suffered abuse at the hands of the religious.

If you ban access to porn, you have to ban access to religion too, and its texts - Koran, Bible etc. There are many exhortations in these texts to the faithful to commit such atrocities in the name of whatever deity, and ample proof that the faithfuil does just that.

Will Richard Lucas ban the bible as well as Playboy?
9

Strict Ivan Jellicoe,

Renfrew 23/06/2009 14:18:03
#8 johnoldsmith.
You seem to have lost your way here.
We were talking about porn. This thread is about pron.
You have raised comnments and gone on and on and on and on about religion. Are you some kind of obsessive religious nut?

10

johnoldsmith,

scotland 23/06/2009 15:17:46
#8

You are clearly incapable of grasping the higher intellectual point at the heart of the debate.

The debate at that higher intellectual level is actually about restricting or preventing access to media (books, films, pictures) that might directly or indirectly induce people to commit violent crime and human rights abuses. For the same reasons we might well want to do this with porn, we ought to do the same with other social phenomena. I gave the example of religion, but could also have chosen politics (eg issues surrounding the BNP, to give a topical example).

My point was simply that addiction to religious belief or political creed has caused and will continue to cause more human rights abuses than porn is ever likely to. In the same way that not all religious people turn to violence in the name of their faith (in spite of their god’s exhortation to do just that, and in spite of the fact that thousands do) so not everyone who looks at porn goes out and rapes a man or woman or child.

If you wish to get serious about censoring porn as a way of preventing human rights abuses, then you have to censor religious texts and political manfestos too. However, there is a rather obvious and transparent hypocrisy in those folk who see merit in preventing access to porn and the BNP's manifesto but would not countenance preventing access to the koran or the bible.
11

johnoldsmith,

Scotland 23/06/2009 15:18:34
sorry, Strict Ivan, I should have labelled that as #9

 

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