Pax Analog’s Weblog

Porn is the secret history of civilization, and drives new tech, new markets — which in turn has a tranformative effect on the overall societal grid as we know it.

“Far from viewing cyber-pornographers as pariahs, society would do well to view them as mountain men and women in the mold of Jedediah Smith, who discovered and opened the passes of the Rockies for entire families to follow west. These early rogues were scruffy and smelly, perhaps not fit for polite society, but they did good service. Though uncivilized, they showed the roads for civilization to follow. We need not let the cyber-pioneers into every home, but society will benefit hugely by letting them roam free.” — Peter Johnson

“Sexuality and eroticism are the intricate intersection of nature and culture” — Camille Paglia

On the everyday level, many of today’s porn stars are increasingly more self-empowered regarding the fruits of their labors. That reconnects their lineage to the temple courtesans of ancient times, and neutralizes the sordid shadow side of history associated with the business of graphically depicting a full-range of human sexual behavior. Whatever one’s taste is regarding sexual products, it is vital to the health of the culture to begin to reassess its institutions, and to recalibrate what is meant by “freedom,” and what is meant by “obscenity.”

Although there is no disputing the broad-based emphasis on so-termed adult products being primarily for entertainment purposes, the recent obscenity case (yes, the “law” still mucks about with this, even when no children are involved) against John Stagliano, points up the great importance of the adult entertainment industry assuming responsibility for an ethic that preempts the long siege of religio-political pretensions to the high ground — which, given the facts of history, is the real obscenity. The ethic I am referring to is thoroughgoing creative awareness.

To paraphrase maverick writer Mark Amerika, from his novel Sexual Blood, ethics don’t come from religion, religion comes from ethics, to the extent the former has any meaning whatsoever.

The porn star on the rack is your true desire under intense interrogation. That can be a BDSM scene pushed to shamanic transcendence by your own informed consent, or it can be the decidedly non-arousing fascistic machinations of church and state.

We can no longer afford to compartmentalize or ignore the entire situation of our arising. Even blase reductionism is a philosophy, and whatever you don’t want to deal with will most decidedly come back to bite you in the ass. Pornosophy is one of the means of expressing a willingness to deal with the radical inversions of meaning applications that real intelligence demands.