Inventors of Evil

CBS Sunday Morning had an interview with Hugh Hefner yesterday. They talked about his life, his relationships, his image. They touted how, despite a life of adversaries from the feminists to the conservative Christians, he had a part in racial equality, gay rights, changed drug laws, and even Roe v Wade. Of course, what most people know is, "We were there to ignite the flame that became the sexual revolution." Asked how he'd like to be remembered, he said, "I'd like to be remembered as someone who played an important part in changing the social-sexual values of my time."

There are always those voices that say "When I was young it was much different." It's generally "It was much better." There is always a hue and cry somewhere about the decline of morality in society and how things are going from bad to worse. And, along with these voices, there are the ones who are disagreeing. "You're making it up," they'll say. Or, "It may have changed, but it's much better now." But usually the position is, "It has always been this way; you just didn't know it." One side will point out that child molesters were few and far between in earlier days and their opponents will say, "No, they just weren't as well-known." Those in the homosexual community will argue that there has always been a larger percentage of homosexuals than we realized while those who lived "in the day" will disagree. Older people will say that pornography is on the rise and younger people will say, "No, it's just more visible." And there are always those who say, "Maybe there are more (child molesters, homosexuals, pornography, whatever is on the table), but it's a good thing." These will always throw in, "What do you want ... a return to enslaving blacks and subjugating women?" (That, by the way, is a classic "red herring" argument -- a logical fallacy.)

The other day my wife and I were watching a commercial for a series on AMC called Mad Men. It's about people in the advertising business in the '60's. My wife complained because, as far as you can tell from the commercials, the show is about people having sex with each other ... who occasionally deal with advertising (as opposed to other shows these days where people are having sex with each other ... and occasionally solve a crime or help a patient or present a legal defense or whatever other genre you might like). "It wasn't like that when we were growing up," she said. And for the most part I would agree. It wasn't. However, in the case of this show, I suggested an alternative theory. "Maybe it was. We weren't part of that segment of society. My theory is that Hollywood and the advertising world set out to mold American morality into their image via the powerful media that had been introduced called 'TV'. Maybe, just maybe, it was like that in the '60's in the advertising world and their goal was to bring the rest of society around to their morality (or lack thereof)." That's my theory.

You can argue all you want about whether or not things were better in earlier days. You can disagree that morality is on the decline. You may wish to argue that things are much better now that child molesting or homosexual behavior or pornography is out in the open. But I think it is foolhardy to argue that it wasn't done intentionally. Hugh Hefner claims it was. He's proud of it. In earlier times, the stigma of pedophilia or homosexual behavior or pornography or sex outside of marriage made it uncomfortable for people to do it and, as such, provided motivation to avoid it. But then came Playboy, touted as a "gentleman's magazine" (which effectively redefined "gentleman" from "a man of gentle or noble birth or superior social position" or "a well-mannered and considerate man with high standards of proper behavior" to "a male") and now "gentlemen" were looking at nude women when it used to only be the "low-lifes" that did it. Child molesters either needed to control themselves or to hide ... until the Internet offered a wealth of sources and networks -- "Hey, I'm not alone! This must be normal!" And so it goes.

Multiply this effect. Hollywood removes "heroes" who are virtuous men and replaces them with reluctant bad guys forced into doing something right and virtue is no longer heroic. Show us that every one is having sex with everyone for whatever reason and sexual mores are removed -- sex is devalued. Tell us that "Greed is good" and we'll find it good to be greedy. Assure us that kids are the wise ones and we'll ignore the conventional, logical, proven concept that age and experience, not youth, typically produce wisdom. And they feed us this stuff almost intravenously, bypassing our filters and stripping off our defenses. So when someone says "Morality has declined since I was a kid" someone else will undoubtedly assure us that it has always been this way and that it's much better these days. Kind of like the "inventors of evil" that Paul talks about ... the ones who "not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them". Yeah, kind of like what the Bible says.