Very recently, the latest scandal to hit Washington DC – a town that breeds cont

roversies like rabbits – concerned the revelation that senior agency staffers of
the Securities & Exchange Commission spent hours surfing pornographic websites
on government-issued computers while they were supposed to be policing the natio
n's financial system.
This news did not really startle me, because it is merely a sign of the times. T
o paraphrase Cole Porter, kids do it, corporate honchos do it, even educated tea
chers do it. Pornography has become so readily available that, for me at least,
the thrill is gone. After all, historically the allure of porn has been enhanced
by its surreptitiousness. Right from French postcards in the early 20th Century
to the Playboy magazines concealed under teenage boys’ mattresses, it was the f
orbidden fruit syndrome of pornography that made it so exciting. Titillation may
not have been quite as naïve as the “glimpse of stocking” celebrated by Porter,
but porn was much less explicit – and more pleasurable – because it compelled o
ne’s prurient imagination to fill in the blanks. A glimpse of cleavage led to de
licious conjecture about the shape and fullness of the concealed bosom. When I w
as growing up in the 1950s –Playboy was still experiencing birth pangs then – po
rn, for me, came in the shape of a magazine called True Confessions. This was es
sentially a compilation of stories of ordinary Americans describing clandestine
affairs and so forth. By today’s standards, it would be considered unbearably ta
me, but phrases like “he slipped his hand under her blouse and fondled her breas
t” proved to be invaluable aids in releasing teenage sexual tension. Later, in t
he ‘70s, my kid sister swears she had an orgasm watching a glistening, open ches
ted Elvis gyrate in the movie “That’s The Way It Was.”
Nowadays, it is all hanging out there – literally. Nothing is left to the imagin
ation. Two decades ago, European, particularly Swedish films, were considered ri
squé because they showed soft porn in artistic hues. And it worked. The action o
n the screen never progressed beyond foreplay, but it was exciting to anticipate
the culmination. In what constitutes porn these days, foreplay has almost been
dispensed with. It is straight on to the main attraction – and I use the term “a
ttraction” very loosely. Watching a man doing nothing but pump a woman like a tw
o-stroke piston for 20 straight minutes can be excruciating. And, inevitably, de
piction of the sex act itself no longer provides satiation to overloaded sex jun
kies. A search for porn clips today reveals a list of titles like “Dad f**** tee
nage daughter” or “Woman being f**** by dog (or horse)”. There is just too much
weird stuff out there; and when that too begins to pall, what’s next? I have no
idea. My imagination has reached its outer limits.
For me, what is more alarming than explicit porn contributing to the increasing
perversion of the adult population is the reality that watching porn has become
socially acceptable. Even in the case of the SEC employees, what caused a furor
was not the activity of them watching porn, but that they were doing it during o
ffice hours. The very parents who resort to measures to prevent their kids surfi
ng porn sites on the internet, do not perceive of irony of indulging in the same
activity without any semblance of guilt. Porn is openly discussed around the of
fice water cooler, often with the enthusiastic participation of women employees.
Then again, porn is lightly dismissed and usually made the butt of ribbing in t
he entertainment media, particularly in sitcoms. And of course, it has almost be
come de rigueur to use the f-word – disguised under the rationale of realism – a
s casually and frequently as possible in Hollywood movies. The latest hit movie
in the USA is entitled “Kick-Ass”; and features a 11 year-old girl spitting obsc
enities and gutting bad guys. In short, watching, exploring and discussing porn
is no big deal.
Some would argue that liberating porn from the secret crevices in which it has h
itherto been concealed is a demonstration of an increasingly free and liberal so
ciety. An analogy can be drawn to the freeing of homosexuality and same sex unio
ns from the closet; how this resulted in breaking down the millenniums old taboo
 against deviant sexual orientation. Others would rebut this with the argument t
hat societal norms that have endured for thousands of years deserve some sanctit
y. If we become a society where literally anything goes, society as we know it w
ould gradually disintegrate.
I would argue that limits on human behavior do serve a purpose. Almost everythin
g, except overt criminal activity, can be justified in the name of freedom. The
constitutional right to bear arms also gives licence to emotionally disturbed in
dividuals to go on a senseless shooting spree – and gang war shootings that are
currently plaguing the mean streets of Chicago. Similarly, bringing sex out of t
he bedroom and into the public domain can be justified as a free and frank expre
ssion of a normal human activity; and expletive laden language is just a true ex
pression of how people talk nowadays. However, collective restraints are require
d on human society; and this truism has been recognized ever since the time of M
oses. The commandments against adultery and coveting your neighbour’s wife were
not resented as an infringement of individual liberties, but necessary to keep h
uman beings’ natural carnal tendencies in check and thereby prevent social anarc
hy. Public acceptance of pornography is chipping away at this barrier. If it giv
es way completely, it may trigger a chain reaction that is virtually impossible
to control.