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2003.06.11
As a Man Thinketh...
Recently, a great deal of energy went into prosecuting a man who had journals filled with those who desire sex with the young fantasy. I didn't catch what argument actually won the case against him. But, I wonder if the prosecution and judge were believers of this statement: "As a man thinketh, so is he."
I saw a segment on the "O'Reilly Factor," just last night, about the mental health community debating if those who desire sex with the young was actually a mental illness. Is being a lover of youth a mental illness any more than being a thief is? Could it be, the lover of youth is only about a someone who hasn't developed a capacity or a conscience about getting sex from a consenting adult, just like a thief is about a someone who has not developed a capacity or a conscience about how to get what they want by earning it?
Much of this anti-social behavior is taught and nourished thru exposure from adults who behave in the same way. But, if you hear the phedophile or the thief claim they can't help themselves--in my opinion, the thing that is broken in them is their mechanism to show responsibility and discipline over their own behavior. It is this: "I am a victim of my compulsions" that needs to be considered the problem.
I remember, as a youth, getting shown a film at church about the "evil shadow thoughts" we all have in our minds. We were told how earnest the Devil was in placing those thoughts there. And how necessary it was to pray for protection by the "Holy Ghost" from these imaginations. We were taught that just to "think" of fornication was a sin. Geez, I was down right headed for hellfire and brimstone.
We "must" admit, that unless a person imagines an act first, they are not able to enact it. So, is there really any such thing as an act that arises from thoughtlessness? Even thru spontaneous instinct, there is a mechanism that separates the physical reaction from the mental process that provoked it. (Consider those who learn to regulate their pulse, their ability to bleed, their pain and body-temperature thru bio-feedback.) It is the ability to "intentionally interfere" with such spontaneous reaction or involuntary instinct that permits the progression of evolution within the animal kingdom and separates the masterful from the impulsive.
Therefore, it is a parent's and society's challenge to infuse maturity upon our children by teaching them how to take control of their impulses and inject an element of healthy intention into their actions. Some thought systems want to prevent all exposure to threatening ideas: "Censorship and prohibition are the only answer. This is how we keep people from misbehaving." How many children were/are getting pregnant because they didn't/don't know anything about sex? Aren't results a pretty good indicator of what works or what doesn't?
Thought systems that perpetuate ideas that we are victimized by the Devil and are not instinctually and intentionally responsible for our personal behavior, are in my book, the real spiritual blasphemers. Even addiction, with bonafide chemical dependency, needs to be scrutinized for it's element of personal choice. No one said that responsible and healthy willfulness is EASY. It is specifically its difficulty that dignifies it as "Maturity."
What if, Adulthood were awarded to those who prove themselves thru a mastery of self-discipline and honorable self-sufficiency, instead of by some arbitrary age limit. This means there would be 50 year olds who don't deserve the rights of adulthood (including having children) and maybe as many young people who do. Isn't that a rough call?
What would happen if Society embraced this value of adulthood by achievement and implemented it? Would we have as many children killing their parents and shooting people in schools? Would we then be so afraid of people who write songs about suicide and make art about sex with unicorns? We don't seem very afraid of explicity graphic movies and games about thieves, rapists and murderers. I wonder how that happened?
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