Friday, September 19, 2008

What Porn?

It's sometimes interesting to read an article from a foreign news website commenting on current events in Indonesia - such as the so-called 'porn law' coming to effect. You can't see it written, but I'm pretty sure the journalists writing this article are shaking their heads and saying, 'what on earth do these guys want to accomplish?'

I must sort of agree - pornography by far is not suited for mass consumption, and there must be efforts to stop underage children to access that material. For adults, I think it's a matter of self-control and education - and a responsible media, too. Shouldn't a law be guaranteeing this? Hell, we can't even regulate motorcycles, must we try to regulate what people wear, part of the most ridiculous clauses in the bill? Instead of finding ways to be all-inclusive, just ban everything, I guess; much, much simpler. I'm not saying pornography is right - and I don't want to be a hypocrite either - but it can be managed better, rather than just treating it as an infected appendix.

It's kind of like saying 'since I can't control my sexual urges, you have to stop wearing sexy clothes or do acts that might increase sexual desire'. It's similar to banners I have seen saying 'for those who fast, happy fasting! for those who don't fast, respect the ones who do' - which is a bit selfish and one-sided. When will be the time that us Muslims respect others, then? We can't even say Merry Christmas, the rumor goes. I really don't see why we should think we are better than other people because of our religion - especially when cases like these show that we definitely aren't. 

Time and time again the people who are supposed to know better than us, and the people that are supposed to be smarter than us - like the good friends in the Parliament - have shown otherwise. Politics are dumbing us down - and this pornography bill is an inherently political move, not a moral one, which makes it stupid - and where morality is supposed to be about understanding, politics have ensured that morality is about the thought police.

How on earth are we going to get ourselves out of the hole and into world-class society if our aspiring politicians are dragging us in deeper?

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