ALEXANDRIA, La. (BP)–“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is because everything would be what it isn’t,” said Alice. “And contrary-wise; what it is it wouldn’t be, and what it wouldn’t be, it would. You see?”
If the main character in Lewis Carroll’s classic “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” were a real person and living today, she would be a postmodern guru.
Postmodernism is the philosophy that has captivated the masses of Western Civilization. Its central tenet is that moral absolutes don’t exist or cannot be known. Thus, individuals are allowed and even encouraged to do, as the Bible puts it, “what is right in their own eyes.”
The only taboo that postmodernism rejects is judgment. Since moral absolutes are not determined culturally, everything under the sun is to be tolerated except intolerance.
The fruit of postmodern philosophy is bitter at best. It has conned society into believing sex is nothing more than a recreational pursuit. Marriage has come to be viewed by many as nothing more than an unnecessary and even negative social contract. Illegitimate births are now considered virtuous.
In terms of sexuality, postmodernism does not allow any behavior to be deemed aberrant. Thus, homosexuality is accepted as a natural, normal and healthy lifestyle. The same is true for bisexuality.
Transsexuals (those who undergo sex reassignment surgery) are just part of the cultural landscape, postmodernism says. They add color to the multihued tapestry of post-modern sexuality and are thus to be celebrated.
Postmodernism has desensitized most of the West, including America, to any pang of immorality. Nothing seems to shock us any more. Even more tragic, we don’t appear bothered by our moral numbness.
What will it take to jolt us from our philosophical fog? Is there any moral line that postmodernism might cross where we will finally say, “Enough”?
There are two areas of sexuality that the postmodern flood has yet to engulf. However, the nonjudgmental wave is encroaching upon them even as I write these words.
Bestiality and pedophilia have long been taboos in civilized cultures throughout the ages. However, if postmodernism has its way, that will soon change.
One of the most talked-about films at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival — an event viewed by many as the most prestigious film festival in the world — is a semi-documentary titled “Zoo.”
The movie concerns a group of men from Washington state who had sex with horses. The activity was discovered in July 2005 when one man died of internal bleeding after engaging an Arabian stallion in a sex act.
While the film does not include any explicit footage, it seeks to depict the men in a sympathetic light. In true postmodern fashion, “Zoo” seeks merely to lead viewers to understand the group’s sexual proclivities, not judge them.
Director Robinson Devor says the absence of judgment was a deliberate choice that was reinforced after he watched videos the men had taken of their horse sessions. “They showed us the videos not to show us pornography,” Devor told reporters. “But to show an animal that wanted to be with them.”
The result of the filmmaker’s efforts, according to the movie trade magazine “Variety” is: “They’ve crafted a subdued, mysterious and intensely beautiful film that presents bestiality not for the purpose of titillation, but as a way of investigating the subjective nature of morality.”
You see, according to postmodern thinking, bestiality is not necessarily immoral; instead, it is the subjective way culture determines what is right and wrong sexually that is the real problem.
The sentiment conveyed by “Zoo” is not new. Peter Singer, professor of bioethics at Princeton University, has long held that the taboo against bestiality should be jettisoned.
Concerning pedophilia, academics fueled by postmodern thinking have already begun to question whether sexual relations between an adult and a child should be considered immoral. The most notable is author Judith Levine.
In 2002, the University of Minnesota Press published Levine’s book, “Harmful to Minors: The Perils of Protecting Children from Sex.” In it, she cites the Dutch age-of-consent law as a “good model” — it permits consensual sex between an adult and a young person beginning at age 12. Dutch law does allow for prosecutions of “coercive sex” if sought by a child or a child’s parents.
“Teens often seek out sex with older people, and they do so for understandable reasons: an older person makes them feel sexy and grown-up, protected and special,” Levine writes. It is worth noting that Levine acknowledges having had an affair with an adult when she was a minor.
In commenting on the sex scandal involving Roman Catholic priests, Levine told Newhouse News Service, that, “yes, conceivably, absolutely” a boy’s sexual experience with a priest could be positive.
God help our children, and our children’s children, if the flood of postmodernism is able to drown moral outrage concerning bestiality and pedophilia. Our world will become what Alice, the postmodern guru of Lewis Carroll’s fiction, envisioned.
Everything will be nonsense. Nothing will be what it is because everything will be what it isn’t. And contrary-wise; what it is it will not be, and what it will no be, it will. In such a world morality and human dignity is a farce.
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Kelly Boggs is editor of the Louisiana Baptist Message. His column appears each week in Baptist Press.
