Your response surprises me. I shall ignore the ad hominem snide remarks you address to me and go straight to the points I think you’re trying to make. Incidentally, one either understands what one reads or one can’t; one cannot read “coherently” though one can think coherently and express oneself coherently. I believe my expression is coherent enough, otherwise I’d be inundated with questions such, “what do you mean?” and “what are you trying to say?” etc. Am I “enamored in my own ‘thinking’ as a resident philosopher?” My suspicion is that you are trying to tell me that I love my own ‘thinking’ so much, I consider myself to be the ‘resident philosopher.’ Yes, I can only do my own thinking and I like it (don’t think ‘enamored’ is the right word for it though) until it gets adjusted, modified, corrected by the thinking of others and yes, too, to the word “philosopher.” The moment we ask a moral question we think and speak in the realms of philosophy. The word means “friend of wisdom’ or ‘the pursuit of wisdom,’ so, we are all philosophers to some degree or other. I, like all the others who were lured in by the use of the word “sex” in your subject, responded to your question in a philosophical manner. This is your very own thread and in it you’ve asked the question “why is sex so damn(sic) important?”
As I read your own thoughts on the matter, I saw that you’re equating “sex” with the “ordinary” and the “average.” (about which you have some problem, viz: “You see, 'average' has always been problematic to me, a burr in my clothe”) and that these two words denote something inferior. The conclusion one can safely make from your ‘thinking’ then is that “sex is ordinary and average; ordinary and average is inferior and troublesome, so sex is inferior and troublesome.” You’ve also called it “infantile,” which, at first I thought you’ve used the word in a jocular sense but later realized that, no, your use was derogatory. I found that thought of yours rather sad and unfortunate.
You began expressing a simple and commonly felt exasperation: “I have nothing against sexual activity , but i hate the manipulation of the 'lessor' media (profit driven rubbish) to turn youngsters into 'roles' that they aren't emotionally, mentally suited for.” Here, I suspect you’re angry at the fact that pulp media promotes sexual activity to the underaged. Pedophiles notwithstanding, there would be little if any disagreement with that statement. Sex between the underaged is bad for them, both physically as well as psychologically. Your point is scored. But you go on about sex per se and you deride it as something “ordinary” and “average.” You talk, instead, about Love (big L, I suppose) as being its antonym, its enemy, the thing that will conquer this nasty thing you call sex. Well, my responses to you were aimed to show you that neither are bad or good if committed correctly. In fact, both are magnificent. Yet, to even try and define the words (try talking to Bill Clinton about what the word ‘sex’ means) we fall into a huge mental maze. What is sex and what is love are questions that all sorts of ‘specialists’ poets, artists, essayists and philosophers since time immemorial have tried to answer. History is full of people who have been tortured and executed because they dared to go against the dogmas of the ruling classes: Landlords, priests, popes, politicians. Howard would have jailed for mentioning the word “gay” and have you shot for knowing how to spell “homosexual!” It wasn’t that long ago in Oz, in Melbourne, that newspapers had to smudge over female nipples… So, what anyone means by the word “love” is anyone’s guess. The Catholics thought that they had the whole thing defined precisely: agape, philia and eros. BS! The three-headed monster that all Catholics had to live by. Result? Well you can see it in the aisles and the pews and the atriums of the churches and the shriveling up of bishops whenever the word “molested” is within their earshot.
In reasonably educated societies we have moved a long way from that; in other societies where these oppressive forces, like backward religious and political fundamentalists still rule, it’s torture as per usual, along with hypocrisy and hatred.
Sex does not separate the good from the bad –whatever the meaning of these words. On the contrary, the act, done well and between consenting adults, levels all people… to a higher, not “average” plane.
Nor did I intent to offend you. I was simply adding one more voice to the orchestra in the forum!
