Human Self-Destructiveness
Two headlines caught my attention in The Dominion Post of July 8, 2013:
1. More kids committing sexual abuse.
2. Data shows ‘we’re in trouble’.
The first article, by Michelle Duff, says that easy access to increasingly hard-core pornography and the sexualisation of childhood are to blame for a rise in the number of children sexually abusing each other.
What these children see, and shouldn’t, distorts their understanding of what is normal at their age – or any age for that matter.
Ian Lambie, an Auckland University expert in clinical and forensic psychology calls for more research into the impact on children.
It would be far better, in my opinion, if we didn’t wait for the outcome. Each parent needs to do everything possible now to totally restrict their children’s access to hard-core pornography. Trouble is, that’s not happening in every family, nor is it likely to. Stopping pornography at source seems an equally faint hope.
The second article is about the risks of climate change and a looming population explosion. Giles Whittel interviewed Stephen Emmott of the University of Oxford who doesn’t think there is any hope.
People have given up on saving the planet, Whittel writes. Emmott says we will probably do nothing to change the behaviours that put us in this predicament.
Both articles, I’d say, give examples of human self-destructiveness.
1. More kids committing sexual abuse.
2. Data shows ‘we’re in trouble’.
The first article, by Michelle Duff, says that easy access to increasingly hard-core pornography and the sexualisation of childhood are to blame for a rise in the number of children sexually abusing each other.
What these children see, and shouldn’t, distorts their understanding of what is normal at their age – or any age for that matter.
Ian Lambie, an Auckland University expert in clinical and forensic psychology calls for more research into the impact on children.
It would be far better, in my opinion, if we didn’t wait for the outcome. Each parent needs to do everything possible now to totally restrict their children’s access to hard-core pornography. Trouble is, that’s not happening in every family, nor is it likely to. Stopping pornography at source seems an equally faint hope.
The second article is about the risks of climate change and a looming population explosion. Giles Whittel interviewed Stephen Emmott of the University of Oxford who doesn’t think there is any hope.
People have given up on saving the planet, Whittel writes. Emmott says we will probably do nothing to change the behaviours that put us in this predicament.
Both articles, I’d say, give examples of human self-destructiveness.
Published on July 08, 2013 17:35
•
Tags:
climate-change, population-explosion, pornography, sexual-abuse, sexualisation-of-children
No comments have been added yet.