Erect-O-Shock therapy

Spreading the seed of honest beauty on the facade of the spectacle;
- a moisturizing treatment for the overly sensitive cultural skin and inflammated taboos -



There was recently a hussle in Finland about the police seizing some artworks of an artist, Ulla Karttunen, because they included "child porn" material. The artworks were very critical toward the subject, they included only pictures that anybody could dig up from the internet free of charge, and seemingly their sole purpose was on raising the topic to discussion - in a calm manner, not shouting.

The reaction of the society was a saddeningly predictable one; any attempt to try and openly communicate a forbidden subject will be silenced by the power of the taboo itself, leading to an endless circle and thus only making the silence grow louder.

The case of Karttunen reminds me of what happened to the reputation of good old mr. Peter Wilson (Hakim Bey), after his poetry was published in a magazine run by an "ethically suspicious" group, NAMBLA. It's still difficult to discuss any of his marvelous ideas - even with the brighter and more intellectual anarchists - without repeatedly having to answer to accusations like: "But isn't he a paedophile?!" Hakim Bey has always been a great down-bringer of taboos - for he realises the dangers that they hold. Therefore it is no wonder that his systematical and ruthless work has brought him this reputation. What dangers is he talking about then? And like always, we should also ask who profits from all this. Who's gaining from such taboos that make us deaf and dumb on the real problems?

Firstly such overly inflammated taboos are easily the main reason for the very symptoms they try to hide. I mean where does the power of most fetishes come from, if not from the very fact that they are the things we do not want to admit in daylight ; the filth we keep away from our made-up-faces, the power-plays we don't accept between us in the name of equality... If the sexuality of the underaged wasn't so shrouded in mystery, it would certainly not attract so many people either. And if the people who are drawn to it could find satisfaction for their curiousity in a safe way, maybe they wouldn't need to go and trade candy for a glimpse of it? So the taboo serves it's own cause, like the symptoms (cough) can serve the illness (flu) - to spread. And vice versa.

Secondly these taboos work as a means of powerful propaganda to maintain the powers-that-be - just like the idea of terrorism is used to give the police more and more rights. To quote Hakim Bey: "in the masturbation of a child it (= amour fou; the mad love) finds concealed the image of the crumbling of the State". Should we learn to see with open eyes and without hysteria the natural beauty of a human being ripening and coming to a sexually active age, we might have one less reason to give the power from our own hands to an outside force - such as the police, such as the state.

And to take it into a personal level... Does it make me a rapist if I admit that I find the idea of overpowering a helpless woman sexually fascinating? Or should we consider my actions (my not-doing-so) as well? Some might even thank me for my sincerity, and see the positive results; the self control i've got is only due to my conscious ability to process this feeling. I would never imagine raping anyone in reality. But the situation might be totally different if my mind had been so blocked by all hush-hush-ing in my youth - that I couldn't even think about the whole matter. Instead of fantasizing, safely playing with the theme and discussing it with like-minded people I might flip out some day, and commit crimes that I couldn't even remember having done when I regained consciousness.