The irony here is that I too sometimes adopt unintelligent perspectives but when I receive new input, I am able to process it accordingly and reconsider the variables in order to reassess my perspectives. Sometimes I am reluctant to do this because the truth is ugly but I inevitably do it anyways eventually. Therein lies the difference. No one can accurately take every possible variable into account and thus we are all bound at some point to make mistakes when we adopt new philosophies. But do we learn from them? The sad thing here is that even if there was such a thing as a perfect being, that being could not force reality onto the world without breeding the same (or worse) evils that I speak of. So there is no realistic solution for this.

I struggle with my own conscience and times. I think about the things I have said and done, and I am unable to decide if they make me a ‘bad person’. I despise my own occasional lack of objectivity the same way I despise it in others. Perhaps that is why I am able to overcome it, prompting frequent paradigm shifts compared to the average person. I also have a tendency to become trapped by circular logic, rendering me quite literally insane. How blissful could life be if I could only abandon logic in favor of seeing life as I would like to see it? Surely it would be far more pleasant but for some reason I am incapable of it. How ironic is it that I envy the average person’s ability to discard logic and perpetuate the same evils that I hate so much?

I am trying to be better about communicating these things because this isn’t hate. Or maybe it is but if so, I hate these things in myself just as much if not more than I hate them in others.

Human perceptions are tainted by desire all the time. Someone who is intelligent realizes this and they are able to see other perceptions to ‘try them out’ and see which one ‘fits’. It is a useful problem solving skill, though admittedly, there are many times in life where there are multiple ‘right answers’ to a given problem which can be rather confusing. This isn’t one of them though.

I don’t dislike you. I dislike your views because they are detrimental to yourself and others. It’s frustrating that not everyone is able to grasp the truth, because they seem incapable of being objective. No one is completely objective and a higher intellectual capacity will not make you infallible but it will give you a much better understanding of the world and the philosophies that exist therein which play a very important role in life.

The lack of objectivity that is almost universal in humans seems to be one of the greatest evils in our world. Wars are fought over it. Heinous crimes are committed over it. Money and power are not the root of evil, lack of objectivity is. It is the root of corruption and everything that we despise. It should be fought with the same fervor that the Christians employ to fight ‘Satan’ and everything that they believe represents him. As much as I ramble about it, I see that it is futile. Humanity is inherently flawed and there is no fix for it. It’s just the way things are. That doesn’t change the fact that there is a ‘big picture’ to look at and most just can’t see it. I’ll continue to ramble about it though in hopes that maybe one day I’ll get through to someone.

OK, I get it. You don’t like me and you don’t agree with me. Now stop with the nasty personal comments and move on.

@ Jessica

Thanks for taking the time to find the citation – much appreciated. I guess the argument does indeed hang on the “lacking serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.” The interesting piece is “It is not a required element of any offense under this section that the minor depicted actually exist.” So although no one is actually a victim, someone can be prosecuted.

took some time and found this:

18 U.S.C. 2252A is the child pornography statute where it specifically excludes drawings of children engaged in sex acts, per Free Speech Coalition vs. Ashcroft.

18 U.S.C. 1466a covers the obscene depiction, including drawings, of child abuse. This is different than 2252A because you can’t argue literary merit with 2252A, but you can with 1466A.

Couples will experiment with bondage. They will also experiment with rough sex. This is normal and completely different. I have personally had bite marks all over my upper chest, neck, and chin from this ‘rough sex’. I don’t find it appealing, but I have tolerated it and it certainly isn’t simulated rape.

Stop using the term ‘virtual rape’, it’s absurd. The correct term is simulated rape. Virtual rape doesn’t exist and by simulating rape, people aren’t talking about someone forcing an e-peen on someone to irritate them like the griefers do. No, we’re talking about simulating a vicious act of violence and deriving sexual pleasure from it. This is about respecting life and humanity. It isn’t even about civilization or being civilized.

You know, sometimes it seems like the cons of civilization far outweigh the benefits. Civilization hasn’t brought law and order, it has brought camouflaged chaos. It has made it difficult for decent human beings to oppose it. This same system revolves entirely around indoctrination. Society wants people to repress their identities. It’s a medium for bullshit so that people like you can adopt baseless opinions without any understanding of them, even though in this case civilization will largely oppose the crap you’re peddling. Obviously you have no earthly idea what you’re speaking of.

Do you have any idea what this distorted line of thinking is doing to the world? Every now and then on CNN, there is a story about someone in the middle of a city somewhere who had a medical problem and collapsed and was stepped over by indifferent pedestrians. This is what this ‘me, me, me’ attitude has ushered in. And it doesn’t stop there. It is so extremely destructive and my frustration is that I cannot communicate this to people who are just too dense to get it, no matter how hard I try. Nothing is sacred anymore. Everyone is taking a piss on life. What a slap in the face for those who actually know how valuable it really is. What else has this selfish attitude caused? Look at the drunk drivers. Another example of wanton destruction caused by individuals who disregard human life in favor of their own desires. How heinous is that? People like that should be getting AT LEAST as much time as they do for second or first degree murder but instead they get negligible prison time for first degree vehicular homicide. What the fuck is this? What does tolerating it do? It makes it continue because now people think it’s acceptable. The drunk driving case that I am following is about to be retried because their was a hung jury. He killed 2 fucking people on Mother’s Day, May 13th 2007, and guess what? He even had priors for DUI. He’s looking at only 5 years if they convict him of the felony and less than that if they convict him of misdemeanor 2nd degree vehicular homicide.

Yet again, you have attempted to compare this degenerative stuff to literary works and yet again, I will tell you that you are wrong. If you gank some logs of someone having e-sex and printed it out then are you under the mistaken impression that you can call it a book and get it published? If you really are as stupid as you make yourself out to be then I pity you. Do you really think that the people who wrote those literary works were sitting their masturbating the whole time?
Just because it’s text doesn’t make it a novel.

And yeah, you’re right just because a behavior is objectionable doesn’t mean you should cave. But there is such a thing as right and wrong, and the concepts DO exist independently of ‘god’ and religion. It’s part of being human. The fact that people have to continually break this down for the lesser evolved among us is a very sad thing. Humanity is being slowly eroded by insidious evils called stupidity and selfishness, where people attempt to rationalize their evil deeds just because they want what they want, when they want it.

You see my words as hate. Good for you, but that isn’t what this is. Not any of it. It’s anguish at the status quo. Look at this shitfest we’re in. No one will ever be able to fix it because everyone wants to shrug and say ‘I’m only one person’ and/or they just want whatever they want without regard for others. It’s a sick state of affairs and I blame people like you for perpetuating it. You are a part of the problem.

If you find the citation for the ban, drop me a note or IM – I wasn’t aware of such a ruling post the 2002 but then again I am not a attorney and cannot pretend to read case law day after day! And you are, of course, right in reminding me (and others) that other countries have different laws that may appear to apply to virtual worlds, although ultimately I believe the Second Life environment is technically “American” in that its owners a resident of the US. But there are international treaties so those do apply.

The “age-play” thing is something of a libertarian litmus test I suspect. As is the virtual rape. And although I totally appreciate your finding this objectionable, you are surely aware that this may not be a perspective shared by the folks indulging in the activities. When folks indulge in “rape play” and, as you say, get pleasure for it, they see this as a fantasy activity, not necessarily an exercise in sexual power or degradation. In real life, my wife and I (married for MANY years) have indulged in fantasy activities that involve bondage and sexual aggression, but like many other people who find this “adult play,” I have not the slightest desire to go out and commit real rape.

What we see in a virtual world is, I suggest, a form of shared novel, where there are multiple writers and images instead of words. A consensual scenario that involves behavior found objectionable to some (or many) is little different from a book by the Marquis de Sade or Bret Easton Ellis; it’s more graphic. We are faced here with a different medium of artistic and literary expression (which I suspect may sound pompous but I’ll say it anyway) that is as accessible as a local library and on a global scale.

I think it is reasonable to want to put some barriers around such “novels” but banning them altogether seems to me to be a form of censorship, something about which we have to constantly vigilant. This leads me to being OK (mostly) with some form of age verification system and maybe even private sims with password-only access – although that would probably be an owner’s responsibility.

OK, I’ll stop here – so much to talk about and I suspect you’ve covered this before. I worry a little about what is “objectionable,” and being the father of a gay daughter living in conservative, god-fearing middle America, you can imagine how much hassle SHE gets – and by extension me – for her “objectionable” behavior.

Otherwise, I like what you write, Jessica

While the Supreme Court did overrule that provision, there is a law still on the books banning depictions, but I don’t feel like finding the cite at the moment and I know I’ve posted it in the comments here before.

And the main issue about Sexual Under Age Play came from the Germans and Dutch, not the Americans.

Additionally, as a funny aside, in the Gorean books, there is a passage about how a kajira is treated better than an Earth wife. Also, don’t ask me for the cite.

The ageplay ban is because there are laws in some foreign countries against the depiction of child pornography (even in cartoon form). It seems like it should be matter of common decency, you know? Some things are just too sacred to defile like that. That’s the same reason why simulating the horrific act of rape is objectionable to most people. And when I say that I’m not talking about the griefer sticking an e-peen in someone’s face or something else that is pretty minor. I’m talking about the people who fantasize about a horrific violent act called rape. The people I have spoken out against are getting their rocks off by pretending that they are raping another being!! They’re masturbating to this shit! That’s very objectionable and no amount of arguing will change that.

There is still considerable debate in the US about depictions of child pornography. In the case of Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coal, 535 U.S. 234 (2002), the provision of the earlier Child Pornography Protection Act (1996) that criminalized drawings/cartoons of child sex was overturned. The Free Speech Coalition argued that the CPPA stifled works of artistic expression and that if real children were not involved, it didn’t constitute a crime. Thus, under US law, possession of child pornography that does not depict actual children is not criminalized.

As far as I am aware, there has been no attempt in the US courts to prosecute adults who indulge in “age play” (grown ups pretended to be kids, which may or may not include sexual activity) in a virtual world. I’d love to hear if such prosecutions have been attempted. So the banning of age play by Linden Lab is not necessarily a legal imperative but a moral judgment.

As far as the law goes, it would appear that the only substantive arguments against age play have to be based on the concept of “systemic harm” being caused – that is, someone watching or engaging in cartoon sex with kids may be encouraged to do it with real ones. Currently, there is insufficient evidence to suggest this happens (I doubt a Gorean master is able to treat his real life wife as a kajiri!)

This is not the case globally, where virtual porn is not protected. The article I cited above is a nice overview of the issue and contains some references that you can then go off and read.