Open? Or Open Not?
I seldom watch TV. However, my mom and grandma are here for a week, so the TV is on. There was a show called "Crossfire". This is a forum type of show that invited some people and discussed some interesting topics. And they were talking about "Should Singapore be more open?"
The show started with the 'history' of the evolution of this Singapore "opening". First we allowed gambling, then X-rated movies, topless shows, bar dancing, etc ... Finally, this "integrated resort" with casino is allowed. Then they started to argue if we should be more open.
It amazed me how the people justified the need for 'sex industry'. They talked as if it is abnormal if we do not allow people to 'buy sex'. Some of them gave some reasons to justify:
- There is no right or wrong, it is just "relatively speaking". We found those shows/prostitudes wrong because we found it strange and rare, in chinese "少見多怪". All these are not wrong and "relatively right" if we had them everyday. (Maybe, one day, stabbing his own father to death or sleeping with his own mother will be relatively not wrong also if everyone does that.)
- It's a trend of the world that we cannot avoid, otherwise we cannot bring our offsprings to the next stage of human civilization. ( Well... the glorious Roman Empire and some other western cultures, I will include the current USA in my list, fell and all started with social, especially sexual, decay. Maybe 'decline of a country' is also a trend that we cannot avoid.)
- Showing of the body is art. There is no boundary of art and we cannot put a frame on it by saying those are not art but erotic. ( No wonder Marcel Duchamp can be famous. Next time, my "nose blew" tissue can be put into a museum and I will name it "Wanton".)
- If we got those what we wanted, actually people maybe satisfied and they might even don't want them anymore.
Quoating Joshua Harris in his book of "Not even a hint", he said "Lust is always an unholy desire for the forbidden. But though lust longs for an object or a person, ultimately this object is not its prize; its goal is the very act of desiring. The result is that lust can never be quenched. As soon as the object of lust is attained, lust wants something more."
What People think about 'lust' nowadays?
People don't call it 'lust', they call it 'pleasure'. John Piper is not a mathematician but he gave this formula: 'Lust is a sexual desire minus honor and holiness." For me, "lust is liking without the corresponding commitment". The modern meaning of 'love' is just 'liking' or 'fondness', it is just a feeling and a desire, but not giving and commitments. That's why we can 'buy sex'.
How Should We Then Live? ( This is a good book to read!)
Just imagine our future, actually just look at the States or Europe. The children lost their virginity at the age of 14, or even earlier, or even NOT with the opposite sex. Abortion is not an option anymore because there are so many underaged mothers. (Even they gave birth to the baby, unhappy families are the results and caused social break down.) Sexual illness, AIDS, unproductive industry are all around. And we should respect people who are homosexual or divorced (...a few times) Kids left home at the age of 18 in order to get their own place because their parents cannot control them anymore... One day your SON came back and bring you his BOYFRIEND. Anymore? I cannot put all because there are even more terrible ones. These are real and these are happening in the society and these are reality!
Want all these? Singapore is moving towards this direction and this "trend". Someone may say, 'not that serious ma! We are far away from that.'. Chinese we say "冰封三尺,非一日之寒" (The ice with three feet thickness is not only frozen in one day.)
That's the payoff of lust - "a continual lust for more". Joshua Harris
