In her syndicated column today, Kathleen Parker again touches America’s pulse. She cites a recent study, reported last week but lost in the hoopla over an astronaut’s romantic revenge, about pornography and adolescents. According to Ms. Parker, the report links an increasing nonchalance over children viewing pornography as adults indulge more in it. Parker is outraged as, indeed, anyone concerned about human development should be.
Many years ago a particularly insightful contributor to America, the Jesuit weekly magazine, wrote that this country will not give up the practice of abortion easily. He said that although logic points that way, people’s pleasure stands in the way. That’s an enormous obstacle for which many do not mind lying as Presidents as well as have teenagers have done. But can a majority of people be so soft-headed? Evidently, yes.
Once again, I am reminded of true freedom. People like to think of freedom as the absence of restraint. Doing whatever one wants is the declared wish of many. But such a meager hope cannot bring about true freedom, much less human fulfillment. Freedom is the perfection of one’s ability. A three year-old pounding piano keys is not playing freely. Arthur Rubenstein fingering one of Mozart’s concertos with eyes closed is. Freedom is not given by human decree; it materializes with guided effort. If children are to grow up to be free adults, they must be tutored in an environment where virtue prevails. Pornography will make them slaves of their passions, ready to lie for a bit of cheap satisfaction.
