WWW- I was excited to see that Porn Generation: How Social Liberalism is Corrupting our Future was recently released. This was in the hopes that someone would accurately document the 24-hour sexcapade that our culture has become. Unfortunately, my enthusiasm concerning the actual book quickly eroded. The solutions Ben Shapiro endorses are even more disturbing than children watching “Queer as Folk” or worshipping the fogeys on “Sex and the City.” Alas, here in the person of an overconfident, ornery 21-year-old, we find that censorship is not dead.
On the surface, much of what Shapiro argues is unobjectionable. Our universities have largely abandoned the search for truth and many former radicals seek to brainwash their students. Unisex dorms and bathrooms do demystify relations between the sexes and deter romantic love. Many pop stars are tarts and actively promote alternative lifestyles. When he says that Paris Hilton is “a fabulously rich slut,” who would dispute it? Rap music is not indicative of black experience in America. Yes, television definitely is a cesspool, and Hollywood does champion homosexuality in many a film. Pornography does have a glamor today it does not deserve, yet Shapiro’s way of ending the pornucopia comes straight from the annals of totalitarianism.
There is no room for libertarians in the author’s vision of the future. He sees censorship, both via the government and through the private sector, as being the solution. The traditional position, among those of us who mind our own damn business, is that whatever a person does which does not harm others should be permitted by the state. Shapiro refuses to tolerate such diversity. He sees all actions as being social and not individual. If what I do vicariously affects someone, such as supporting pornographers by purchasing their products, then I cannot claim that my actions do not negatively impact the community.
It is here that Shapiro reveals his lack of depth and inexperience with the world. What he is advocating essentially means there is no such thing as individual rights as everything could be construed as falling within the state’s interest. The author so lacks imagination that he cannot understand that people like he and I would be the first to be censored by a Democratic administration. We would become the Oriana Fallacis of the USA. A door would be opened from which totalitarianism would escape. His words frighten as if they came from Stephen King:
“We must press for government to use the force of the law against pornography, obscenity, and indecency across the board, from Howard Stern to Larry Flynt, from TV to radio to the Internet, from music to movies.”
May a 70ish Howard Stern marry Ben’s firstborn daughter.
This guy is so extreme that he doesn’t even want Levitra or Viagra to be advertised on television. Shapiro plainly does not recall a decade ago when the Clintonistas audited conservative organizations and magazines like the American Spectator. Political correctness is nothing compared to what they’d do with the imprimatur of the police. The Left already thinks we’re evil for thinking differently than they do, and, if we give them the opportunity to legally silence us, they gladly would. Fires and jail sentences would quiet anybody who defied them. However, regardless of who censors who, the blue pencil is never the answer. If I could shut down the Nation and Mother Jones … I never would.