PORNOGRAPHY AND THE DECLINE

OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION....

By ROLLAND HOWARD

Co-Editor, Denver Newsletter, Mattachine Society, Inc.

(Reprinted from Denver Newsletter, Nov. 1959)

Boycott of newsdealers who sell certain books and magazines, denial by police in certain cities for publishers to have the right to distribute certain books, and invasion of the privacy of citizens to determine if they possess printed materials, photographs, etc., which may be defined as "obscene" are items in the headlines today in many communities across the U.S. All of these actions give rise to some very serious questions. Is this whole business as bad as the sensationalist press and some local law enforcement agencies-often pressured by fanatic religious bigots-make it sound?

There are many people, professional social reformers and do-gooders and upnosed busybodies, who, making a great show of their "concern" for "society's welfare," are forever seeing evil in such things as homosexuality and pornography and, indeed, in sex itself. Some are even inclined to see in such things the handwriting on the wall concerning civilization.

These latter may be right. But for different reasons from the ones they think they see. They are so conscious of their own self-righteousness and "goodness" that they rarely find time to peer more deeply into the question, and their view is dangerously short-sighted.

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It is my thought that such things as are currently disturbing the Postmaster General and other self-appointed censors are not themselves malfunctions, but perfectly natural signs of protest as a reaction to unnatural conditions. If civilization declines, it will not be because of homosexuality or pornography or prostitution; it will be because of the underlying pressures which give rise to these things.

Just what kind of pressures are these? Well, if we wish to give them a general, title, we might use some such term as "over-refinement." It comes to human systematizations of all kinds-including national cultures-when they have existed for extended lengths of time without basic changes. As in a political machine, the powerful figures in such systems increase and stabilize their power, and eventually they begin to impose upon the rest of the world those dictates which tend to guarantee them their positions of power.

In doing so, they lose any regard they may once have had for the individual differences of the others-their needs and their freedom to fulfill them. These "others," however, are the vast majority and when they are discontent enough it means that the system which they comprise is thereby weakened. It becomes ripe for conquest because there remains in its members too little interest to provide its defense. Discontent demands change.

Now before such a sorry state of affairs comes about, there may develop lesser signs of protest-symptoms of the discomfort being caused the weaker masses by the application of pressure by the stronger ruling few.

Without going into the psychological, sociological and historical factors which have brought them their power, we can see that it lies in the hands of the churches, the various authorities in the area of jurisprudence, and the political officeholders. To what degree these powerful individuals "represent" the people is questionable at best. Mostly they are instruments for imposing the will of the powerful few who are always members of the majority.

Still, there is not a better system, and the defense against injustice for minority groups falls to the lot of the individual voice. This is my purpose here. Sex is basic. It may be regarded, in a sense, as the "life force" itself. Its demands are felt by all of life; by all people.

Now, using a teakettle of boiling water for demonstration, let's take a slightly closer look at one of the symptoms we mentioned above-homosexuality.

1. From causes not clearly understood or agreed upon-psychological, hereditary, or both—very early in the life of some individuals, the usual avenues of sexual expression are closed to them. We have put a plug in the teakettle's spout and welded it shut.

2. The individual in this group, as natural sexual pressures appear in adolescence and increase in urgency, discovers the only other possible avenue of expression-other members of his own sex. The increasing pressure of steam in the teakettle forces the lid up slightly at one side to let it escape.