How do you feel when you turn on the television and see individuals
engaging in simulated sex? Or portraying drug use? How do you feel when, in a news story, you
hear the account of someone who was raped?
Or see a social media story about a priest or teacher who forced a child
to have sex with them, or worse?
The other day a friend of mine posted a still frame on his
facebook account from one of those daytime tabloid shows. It was of a teenage black girl and under her
picture was her name and the fact that she’d recently had sex with a man for a “lobster
buffet dinner”. Of course the reaction of everyone to the photo was laughter
and mockery. The inevitable evolution of
the absurdity that has become our public treatment of what we once saw as shocking
or, at the very least, private.
It’s strange, isn’t it?
That the greatest Taboo in our society right now isn’t sex or drug use. It isn’t violence or rape. It isn’t incest or pedophilia or necrophilia. It isn’t prostitution or cannibalism. It isn’t
bondage or S&M. It isn’t gluttony, infidelity, pride or deceit. It isn’t any of these things. Doesn’t it feel
like somehow some of these things should shock us? Or at the very least present us with some sense
of mystery? But they don’t, do they?
In fact, all of these topics are portrayed vividly and
matter-of-factly any time of the day or night you care to log into the internet,
or flip on your TV, or slap down your ten bucks at the theatre to see the
latest blockbuster. Constantly, we are
barraged with these topics by tepid minds who believe they are being clever,
counter-cultural or shocking. Or worse, by
those who are trying to desensitize us, break down our boundaries and force us into
the constant discomfort between the extremes of utter titillation and total disgust.
The other day in a public Laundromat I saw, on one of fifteen TV's hanging from every angle in the place, a cable show
dedicated to the hundred most violent and horrifying deaths of all time. Each one of them was vividly reenacted with actors
and stunning special effects while it was described in matter of fact detail by
a expressionless narrator. No one in the
Laundromat thought that this was a strange thing to see there.
It’s as if, in desensitizing people from these things, the
real taboo becomes less obvious. But it’s
there if you pay attention. In all of
the arguments for gay rights, abortion, rape, public health care, teen sex,
political scandal, race tension, terrorism, murder and suicide there is one
thing missing. One thing that no one
wants to talk about. Or, if it is talked
about, it’s met with scorn and derision and dismissed by those who quickly put
up another shocking photo of a teenage girl who recently gave her priest a blow
job for a number seven value meal and a two slices of Eli’s cheesecake.
The most horrifying, objectionable Taboo is any individual
who stands up and says he does not want to be a slave. To any religion, or government, to any job or
academic institution. The real Taboo, my
friends, is advocating self-reliance and freedom.
Why? Why is such an
assertion so shocking? That one should
want to be free and have the right to his own choices? To speak the way he wishes to speak or
disregard political correctness? Why must
he be punished for not paying homage to everyone else’s damage and victimhood
or for not conforming to what the man or woman down the street defines as a ‘good
person’? Why is it despicable that he
should want to learn to defend himself and those he cares about rather than
recklessly and irresponsibly trusting someone else to do it for him?
Why is it shocking? Because
the world is dangerous. There are
terrorist out there. Evil men want to
rape you and your children. You may get
sick. You need to give your power to us
so we can protect you. Someone is going
to attack you for your gender, race or sexual preference. Or worse, someone may call you a fatty on the
bus. And you won’t be able to protect
yourself. We’ll make sure of that. So let us make laws for you. Lots and lots of laws that you too will eventually
fall victim to.
How does that make you feel?
To know that the very individuals who are desensitizing you to all of
the perversions that they find titillating are trying to make your most basic
freedom to be independent and self sufficient, to grow and become actualized the
greatest Taboo of all? That they are
using your own security fears against you so that you give up your
independence?
It should make you feel afraid. Uncomfortable. Angry. Outraged.
And if it doesn’t, try this.
Next time you’re waiting for your Chinese take out and see a twelve year
old on a talk show slap her mother, or find yourself sitting in front of a big
screen watching some dude giving a simulated hand job to another, ask yourself
this question: Why would I feel that the guy who wants to be optimistic and live his life his way, who doesn’t want to be forced into
someone else’s idea of healthcare, or who thinks political correctness is a
form of thought control, or who would rather all governments stay out of his
personal relationships—why would I feel that is more shocking than this?
