Xwii360 said:
YOU ARE BRILLIANT, I want your babies. You've turned something so simple into something so extreme you are a fantastic news woman and should be hailed as such. Way to think outside the box.
May good things always come to you.
This, except less of the sounding like a stalker. Nice article.
That said, I must say that I disagree with the conclusion you reached. Or, to be more precise, I wouldn't say that followed through with it as much as you could've. To be honest, as disgusting as I find this kind of thing - seriously, I had to stop myself from throwing up when I saw the first picture - I couldn't say that it's more or less creepy than if it had offered some kind of premise, or justification. At least it's honest in its motives; enjoying yourself while inflicting pain is as hardwired into the human brain as sex is. The aversion to violence can only be taught when the human is old enough to understand, and therefore will always be substiantially weaker than the urge to wreak havok.
Now that the basic stuff's out of the way, here's my point: I would think that you can't put someone enjoying the Torture Game, and someone enjoying the act of waterboarding a terrorist in a Secret Service simulator, on the same scale of sick. While Person A has, to a degree, come to terms with the fact that causing pain is fun, and is therefore less affected by the taboo - and taboo has proven fairly effective in combating such things - they have a better chance of understanding their feelings, and may have better control over themselves. Person B could be completely averse to violence
except for when there is appropriate justification. I'm suddenly reminded of those ridiculous anime characters where a character is physically twelve, but for the purposes of storyline they're seventeen or something. Person B runs the risk of thinking "what I'm doing is justified, and is therefore outside of moral questioning; the only factor that requires scrutinity is whether or not these actions are necessary, or if this person deserves it". With this kind of thinking, somebody could be capable of
anything, if persuaded that they're in the right. Taboo may be a simpler, wider-spread, and more immediate method of prevention, but it's got massive weaknesses, and is frighteningly easy to subvert.
Of course, it'd be silly to say that those are the only possible choices; these are merely the greatest possible risks and benefits I can see right now. In either case, introspection is necessary, and the sooner you come to terms with those aspects of yourself which need to be kept under watch, the greater the chance for introspection there is. If you always seek justification to your less society-friendly urges, as opposed to considering why those urges exist in the first place, and what you can do about them, then you're just plain dangerous.
Note that these are my opinions, and are therefore
invincible to all forms of criticism and logic probably filled with plenty of holes. If you spot one, jot the right answer down on the back of a postcard and send it in to the usual address. Prizes go to those who fix my broken reasoning.
