The Case Against Pornography

...Not the least of these considerations is whether there are sufficient reasons for risking the dangers inherent in any type of censorship, no matter how moderate or judicious, simply because we find the sale and use of pornography distasteful...

...And yet pornography is eminently a political problem...

...It offers ample evidence of how permissiveness can, among other things, corrupt the arts or destroy a neighborhood...

...They did not, however, say that there is no such thing as sanctity, or that all human pursuits are equally worthwhile...

...but it does imply, or at least leads to, public acceptance...

...Rather the pleasure and pain produced by art beth draws on and molds what the audience for that art holds to be good and evil, noble and base...

...In a sense, this is the most "political" argument of all...

...Interestingly enough, most of the contributers to The Case Against Pornography are the intellectual cousins of the defenders of pornography...

...In any case, pornography is a more probable cause of crime than the Saturday morning television cartoons that so worry many ritualistic liberals...

...The major disadvantage of the psychological or literary appreach to pornography is that both tend to gloss over politics...

...But more disturbing were the articles in which it was asked: "~N]mt's so bad about the stuff anyway...

...No one would deny that pleasure is an essential part of an artistie experience...

...An argument for this position can certainly be made...

...Secret diplomacy is all well and good, but if Kissinger is to have any lasting effect on American foreign policy, or at least any lasting beneficial effect, he must begin the task of educating not only the nation's President, but also the lasting enduring rulers in a democracy--the people at large, as well as the Congress and the press--so that Americans will begin to come to terms soberly, and, let us hope, successfully, with the responsibilities of doing what we can to see that liberty shall not perish where it exists on this earth...

...The book is a fine summary and paraphrase of all of Kissinger's writings until 1969...

...The political conclusion that can be drawn from their work is that all decent societies must draw the line somewhere when it comes to freedom of activity...

...but the conservative often rejects dStente on principle while implicitly holding out an unacceptable alternative (unacceptable to the American people, if not in itself unacceptable)--an activist foreign policy which is willing to run risk of major war, a war caused by our rejection of the status quo...

...foreign policy in the 1950s and 1960s was entirely defensive: 'Wee possessed a doctrine to repel overt aggression, but we could not translate it into a strategy for achieving positive goals...

...But does the USSR accept the status quo...

...This is especially true of democratic citizenship, which requires attention to political matters, patience with the democratic process, and compliance with the outcome of that ~ process...

...This approach has its merits, of course...

...It is clear that the case for pornography now has a place in the new culture...

...Perhaps the most important consequence of the current dispute over pornography will be the revelation of how much confidence we have in our values and our judgment...

...The United States under Dulles, but also under later administrations, had "a policy which seemed incapable to articulate any purpose save that of preventing an expansion of the Soviet sphere...

...It was March 1954, and Siegfried Weisberger, owner of the Peabody Book Shop, was calling it quits...

...Therefore, their indulgence and display The Alternative March 1974 17 should be permitted and even encouraged...

...Reading this book, one is struck above all by Kissinger's repeated argument that U.S...

...And if breaking out of the intellectuaI and moral horizons necessarily imposed by a culture or political community is the path to a fuller, more human existence...

...This underlies what Kissinger wrote twenty years ago, that a statesman is an educator...

...The problematic nature of American willingness to continue to take an active role in world affairs forces any American administration to play from weakness...

...It is no more than that...

...it is precisely America's weakness, in fact, that may make d~tente necessary, Lacking the military superiority over the Soviet Union we once had, it seems that our best lever over Soviet actions is no longer so much the threat of force but that of breaking off the economic benefits of d~tente the Russians genuinely seem to want...

...Yet, at least as important as this possibility, is the belief that pornography represents a threat to political liberty itself...

...The customers applauded louder...

...his duty is to '%ridge the gap between a people's experience and his vision, between a nation's tradition and its future...

...The selection of articles also gives the book a contemporary cast, and it is important that the case against pornography can be made on the same intellectual grounds as the case favoring it...

...It is because of this difference in sexual mores that liberation from them could well lead ' to an atmosphere of license t h a t might fester violence...

...But the American weakness is not just military...

...Weisberger had arrived in the UnitThe Alternative March 1974 19...

...2 yrs...

...Today...

...Many of the authors, particularly the authors of the longer articles, are psychotherapists and psychiatrists...

...This is not true of prohibitions against theft or violence...

...isolationism...

...And there it was--at 42nd Street, between 8th and 9th Avenues---a magic shop with tricks all over the place...

...To the degree that pornography undermines this spirit of self-sacrifice, or contributes to the decay of other institutions that encourage self-restraint, it damages what Lincoln called the %apabili~y of a people to govern themselves...

...The Case Against Pornography gives us reason to doubt these assumptions...

...Each essay will suggest the practices and values of truly great American saloons, while elucidating the philosophies of the saloon keepers and mixologists that made their establishments esteemed...

...I'm sorry...

...Accepting his perspective, however, one can hardly object to pornography because it is a return to infantile sexuality...

...That Kissinger's foreign policy does not fit neatly into the traditional splits over U.S...

...They were idols...

...Although Holbrook does include articles by Walter Berns and Irving Kristel, these are the only essays that come to grips with the political aspects of the pornography debate...

...Or to put the question in more immediate term_~ What would compel a Supreme Court, if not "liberal," at least libertarian enough to hand down the recent abortion decision, to uphold the right of local communities to censor what they regard as harmful to public morals...

...When I was 16 years old, I ran away from Baltimore and went to New York...

...Since the Progressive era, Americans have become increasingly aware of the fact that the pursuit of private economic interests does not necessarily enhance the public welfare...

...Holbrook's book includes a brief article by Ernest van den Haag, in which he points to the possibility that pornography (which, he argues, nearly always leads to sadistic pornography) might foment the disposition in some to commit violent sex-crimes...

...Under Nixon-Kissinger, the United States has begun to try to do what Kissinger has long argued for, to pursue a positive foreign policy of making what gains are available and reducing tensions as much as possible...

...11,00 [] 2 yrs, [ ] 3 yrs...

...I went inside and stood there for 3, 4~ 5 minutes---about that time--looking at a man..He had his back to me...

...Holbrook's book reminds us that ultimately, there is no treatment of human sexuality--whether pornographic, literary, or educational that is morally neutral...

...I can barely shuffle with two hands...

...They look up to the businessman...

...As the Middle East war has shown, it will make trouble wherever it can, in a thoroughly despicable way...

...Their articles do contain occasional references to Plato, for example, and even a~few to traditional Judeo-Christian ethics...

...The central point in nearly every one of the articles, whether dealing with '~hard-core" pornography, sex education, sex clinics, or the novels of William Burroughs, is that much of the contemporary attitude toward sex is dehumanizing and degrading...

...Quiet," commanded Dantini...

...The old magician, half h i s face hidden by a mat of white beard, had spirited a golf ball from his empty right hand...

...It also extends to the area of distinguishing pornography from "erotic art...

...further, it is one that is willing to take considerable risks in pursuing its-revolutionary goals, to risk even its existence on foreign "adventures...

...It took me four years to do that trick," he said, "six months to learn it and throe-and-a-half years to find a place to perform it...

...Nevertheless, the Supreme Court regards it as a "reasonable" assumption that a connection between pornography and "antisocial" behavior might exist...

...Liberal democracy is rooted in the belief that it is impossible or unwise for a government to dictate the best way of life for each citizen...

...Men such as Benjamin SIx)ck and Rollo May are respected and trusted by many...

...But if America was unwilling--even when, under Dulles, we were far stronger than the USSR---seriously to risk war for the sake of Hungarians or Czechoslovaks, then opposition to d~tente is merely willful posturing...

...That pornography and crime might be connected is worthy of consideration becattse the concern for the physical safety of citizens is shared by everyone, regardless of his political convictions...

...And this belief, that self-government rests on something as unscientific as the good character of its citizens, is a recurrent theme in the writings and speeches of our greatest statesmen...

...But mark ms words...

...Tyrtell, we shall puSlish gently preceptive essays discussing the great American saloons of the past and those that have survived into the very present...

...Education has become a series of ~educational experiences...

...What do you want for free...

...O N A SATURDAY night not long ago, The Great Dantini stood before a hushed crowd in the beer stube at Baltimore's Peabody Book Shop...

...Robert McTiernan The G r e a t American Saloon Series Baltimore's Peabody Book Shop It has become chic in recent years to disparage American institutions, to give them the Bronx hurrah so to speak, and thus to drain from them their validity and cast them aside...

...15.00 [] 3 yrs...

...When it comes to politics, an appeal to some higher motive is necessary...

...but that is a useful function, especially if Graubard is correct, as I think he is, in his 'every simple preposition that there is a l i n k . . , between what Kissinger wrote in the 1950s and 1960s and what he has been doing since January 20, 1969...

...But art is not merely "having one's sensorium challenged or stretched," as Susan Sentag suggests...

...In this vein, conservatives have made much of Kissinger's contention that the USSR is no longer a "revolutionary" power...

...This point of view has had an undeniable impact on many contemporary American intellectuals...

...The next morning I went out to look for a magic shop...

...Arthur Krock m new 1 Please enter a]_____renewa I subscription I I Regular Subscribers: Student or Faculty:'} [] 1 yr...

...Cards crawled reluctantly up his arm, sputtered through the air and slid through his fingers...

...Even in a large, commercial republic self-interest is a virtue only in the market place...

...To the extent that detente is a policy based on weakness, that is a reflection of the fact that the United States is to a significant degree "naturally" isolationist, and that it might pay the Soviet Union to await a revival of U.S...

...And now," he continued, "some fancy shuffles...

...We can ask if Kissinger has performed this task as assiduously as he might have...

...He believed that the ensuing hardship %vould cure Americans of their vicious and luxurious and effeminate appetites...

...shot back Dantini...

...It is our opinion that this chorus of objurgation has accomplished great damage, and we think it is about time to come to the support of the most worthy of our institutions, intoning not what is wrong with these institutions but what is right with them, not what have been their shortcomings but what have been their glories...

...Men as different as Thomas Aquinas and Thomas Macaulay warned of the dangers of trying to legislate sanctity...

...It is intriguing that despite our pessimism about many things relating to the _9 future, most of us are sanguine about the future of liberal democracy...

...During the past decade we have witnessed the consecration of %xperience" as the ultimate human value...

...In other words, the mere portrayal of the sex act does not convey the importance of individual qualities of particular persons in mature human relationships...

...In his Life Against Death, Norman O. Brown suggests that the role of art is to return us to the sources of pleasure prohibited by '~capitulation to the reality-principle which we call education or maturity--in other words, to regain the lost laughter of infancy...

...on the contrary, dStente requires considerably more skill and even toughness than a policy of containment...

...but one can retain a wariness and dislike of the USSR and an appreciation of their baseness without precluding mutually advantageous dealings with them, and agreements which serve to such a vague but real purpose as lessening world tension...

...Yet both our political tradition and common sense point to the need to extend the concept beyond the protection of our physical well-being...

...The question of the degree to which pornography contributes to crime is debatable...

...It is essentially a form of voyeurism...

...The age of the boob is upon us," he told the Sun in a going away interview...

...There is no way to prove or disprove this preposition scientifically...

...He dispatched it into thin air, pulled it from his nose and produced it on the end of his tongue...

...It does, however, show how indispensible "republican virtue" was once thought to be for maintaining political freedom...

...Therefore, the artist must primarily be a subverter of civilization...

...I arrived at night...

...Clearly, this is a very broad principle...

...The shape of the future will depend ultimately on convictions which far transcend the physical balance of power...

...It leads many of these essayists to classify as pornographic a great d~al more than just Times Square's typical offering...

...And even if pornography does not contribute to "republican virtue," the fate of a country with as much individual liberty as ours does not rest on the legalization or prohibition of pornography alone...

...Finally, one can argue that pornography should be censored not because it causes corruption, but because it is corruptior...

...holds limited hopes for d~tente---simply to make the world a little safer, and perhaps a little better...

...Mr...

...Unfortunately, the predominance of this one point of view leads to an undeniable weakness in the book...

...Anyone familiar with the successfu]~ rock performer Alice Cooper can testify that the line separating complete sexual abandon and the glorification of violence and sadism is a thin one indeed...

...All of them deal, if only by implication or silence, with the differences or absence of differences between mere sex and human love...

...stance offered the Soviet Union no incentive to negotiate, and no incentive for Soviet concessions...

...In an extraordinary letter to his wife Abigail during the Revolutionary War, John Adams expressed the hope that General Howe would capture Philadelphia...

...Following the recent Supreme Court pornography decision, the death knell, as usual, was sounded for the First Amendment...

...Barring situations of abject poverty or psychological disturbance, people tend to regard these as provisions to protect them from "the other guy...

...Gee," marvelled a young girl: who was sitting near Dantini, one hand on her beer and the other on her boyfriend...

...And recent drama has brought us theater, '~living" and "liquid...

...We tend to assume that with any increase in freedom of expression, the "free market place of ideas" will guarantee that regardless of what is being expressed, a better or healthier society will be the result...

...The art of the sixties included a deluge of '%appenings...

...Kissinger wrote in 1957 that the threat of massive retaliation did nothing to 'r the Korean war, the loss of northern Indo-China, the Soviet-Egyptian arm deal, or the Suez crisis...

...By separating sexuality .from the whole complex of other human .activities, relationships, and emotions, it reduces human beings to objects...

...The recognition of the weakness of any American bargaining position should obviate some of the conservative criticism of Kissinger, but it does raise one important consideration...

...This return to infancy aims at releasing men from the constrictions of %ivilized" life...

...Howe's...

...The psychologist's or philosopher's question of what constitutes a good or fulfilling life is a preliminary problem...

...Whatever the USSR's ultimate or long-range goals, it clearly is not (and has not been) "revolutionary" in the sense that it is willing to take serious risks to increase its borders or its ideological sway...

...If not, is it not foolish to pursue d~tente while the USSR has hostile intentions...

...It is implicit in Burger's statement that certain behavior , though not a direct threat to public safety, is depraved behavior and therefore unacceptable, even in a free society...

...Napoleonic France is the prototype...

...One can easily oppose specific details of how we are going about dbtente...

...shouted a man, smirking over his drink at a side table...

...Though this argument is hardly in vogue today, it is a fimiliar one in American history...

...I f you have suggestions for this series send them to Mr...

...The political step from what is wror~g with pornography to what are we going to do about it involves amyriad of new and complex considerations...

...Because social mores regarding sex restrain normal as well as abnormal behavior, they provide a guide for or barrier to everyone's actions...

...So it is that in this series we intend to come to the aid of one of the most admirable of American institutions, the Great American Saloon...

...For them the "quality of life" is something that pertains only to the amount of carbon monoxide in the atmosphere...

...But it is not true that to be democrats or even liberals we must deny t h a t it is possible to distinguish human excellence from human degradation...

...The thirty or so people applauded politely...

...That pornography is base and dehumanizing is an assumption well justified by all of the contributors to Holbrook's book...

...I'm sad...

...Brown views by David Holbrook Library $8.95 that he does not hold...

...I t must be said that President Nixon, if not Secretary Kissinger, has not always made this clear...

...The United States is no longer %he American experiment" to us...

...I wish I didn't have to say it...

...Don't mess me up...

...As Whittaker Chambers pointed out fifteen years ago, the American conservative position on foreign policy has often been curious...

...Studies end__ $4.50 } $8.00 $11.00 I I I I I I I 1 THE,4L TERNA TIVE _9 R.R...

...11 Box 360 _9 Bloomington, Indiana 47401 18 The Alternative March 1974 say the least, in our time, and was even regarded as anachronistic in his own...

...Passions and Habits, a more dangerous Army to American liberty than Mr...

...The reasoning behind this view is simple: Sexual fantasies are an intense, personal human experience...

...Tyrrell at P.D.'s Globe Saloon, 929 South Jordan, Bloomington, Indiana, 47401, and as Siegfried Weisberger would say, Happy Days...

...This is an admirable objective, but the utterly defensive nature of the U.S...

...One argument, infrequently made and seldom taken seriously, is that pornography leads to crime...

...Finally he turned around and I said: 'Are you the man I've seen in the movies?' He said 'Yes, you've seen me in the movies.' It was the Great Houdini...

...In the series that follows, ably edited by the erudite and experienced P.D...

...The aim of Holbrook's anthology, of course, is to counter this view...

...I Address C i t y _ State Zip 'College Year or Univ...

...I predict very dark days for America . . . . Everyone in the cities used to look up to the doctor, the lawyer, the professor...

...Sexual fantasies might be personal, but they are not unique...

...The real threat is the attitude that "value judgments" with the force of law are unjustifiable in a free society...

...There was a handkerchief sticking from his coat pocket and his fly was open...

...It is true that the policy of d~tente is, in a way, a policy of weakness...

...A revolutionary regime is one that does not accept the established international order...

...Implicit in many of our actions and attitudes is the view that democratic government is the rule and that exceptions to that rule are bound eventually to fail...

...William Kristol The Case Against Pornography O NE OF THE FIRST effects of reading David Holbrook's The Case Against Pornography is to compel the realization that there are those who make a case for pornography, who regard it as or imply that it is a positive good...

...This conclusion is based on the recognition that the duties of citizenship frequently demand that we sacrifice our personal desires for the sake of some higher, public good...

...The logic of the Right's opposition to d~tente on principle leads logically to a demand for a major attempt to change the status quo and thus the risk of war...

...Tge are immersed in an unending process, not in a quest for a final destination...

...Kissinger wrote in 1968 that ~'the most profound challenge to American p o l i c y . . . (would be) philosophical" in the years ahead...

...Of com'se, one must avoid the danger of ascribing to Mr...

...First the accordian shuffle . . . Now the one-handed s h u f f l e . . . And now the Russian shuffe...

...Adam's puritanism would be anomalous, to "Not since Mencken, I think, has journalism of this quality and pungency appeared very often...

...antini was dressed in a threadbare red turban, a dusty gray business suit, a crumpled white shirt and sneakers...

...The deepest problems of equilibrium are not physical but psychological or moral...

...Such a view is anathema to many of today's liberals...

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...then pornography might be one means of achieving this superior lifestyle...

...since we are not going to make the world safe for democracy, we should at least make it relatively safe...

...Bt~t the names constantly repeated are those of other psychologists, especially Freud...

...foreign policy (witness the attacks on him from both sides) makes Stephen Graubard's book worth reading...

...Perhaps it is time to reexamine an older view of democracy that recognized that the tension between the public and the private exists in all areaS of political life...

...Would you mind repeating that...

...As Chief Justice Burger pointed out recently: ~The state statute books are replete with constitutionally unchallenged laws against prostitution, suicide, voluntary self-mutilation, brutalizing bare-fist' prize fights, and duels, although the crime may only directly involve 'consenting adults.'" It may be true that legal sanction does not necessarily imply public approval...