COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE ABOUT AN ARTICLE IN SALON
I agree that likely the same proportion of people abuse
children as ever. It is probably fair to say that any large human population
has a similar distribution of “outliers” in the many functions of the brain.
But society has changed its views on what constitutes proper
care of children and what constitutes abuse, and rightly so in the view of most
people. There are historical examples of pedophiles being tolerated to varying
degrees. Thomas Jefferson began sleeping with his slave, Sally Hemmings, when
she was thirteen. Robert Hooke, eminent 17th century scientist, had
a long sexual relationship with his young niece.
But those kinds of examples cannot be cited as an argument
for tolerating pedophilia in a modern society any more than other
once-tolerated practices such forced marriage or bride burning or honor
killings or droit du seigneur or still
a hundred other ancient practices which reflect only the principle of might makes
right. Might does not make right when you establish a true society of laws.
We have the rule of law now, and we don't tolerate, for
example, the marriage of 12-year old girls to men, even though the practice
continues in several of the world's dark corners and was once a part of
aristocratic European culture.
I do think pedophiles may be characterized as just one of
many of Nature's unfortunate "freaks." They occur naturally, likely
with a certain frequency, but most of society cannot accept them because
parents feel keenly the need to protect their children from predators of all
types, and the laws of a modern society always reflect the needs of its basic
unit, families, and I include families of all descriptions.
The human brain is almost infinitely complex, and it is the
seat of sexual desire and imaginings. We know well in the case of other organs,
as say with the heart or lungs, how many natural faults and glitches there can
be. The brain’s very complexity makes it subject to an amazing variety of
irregularities. All of our mental illnesses, I believe, can be ascribed to the
huge number of irregularities, and repeated patterns of groups of
irregularities (syndromes), which emerge regularly in the brain, the most
complex of organs.
And I don’t see it as being any different with conditions
like pedophilia or sadism or psychopathy. I’m not calling pedophilia a mental
illness, there is nothing useful in saying so, but I am saying it is just one
of many unhappy and naturally-occurring conditions which arise regularly yet
cannot be accommodated by modern society.
It all makes an irreconcilable problem in terms of a
minority versus the large majority’s vital interests, but I do think it
essential for our laws and practices always to protect children’s interests
first.
Pedophiles in modern society then are automatically
condemned to unhappy, constrained lives, but this reality is no different from other
such natural but unhappy situations which occur regularly.
Psychopaths, too, occur with a certain frequency in any
population, but we can hardly be expected to tolerate what they feel the strong
impulse to do. Then again, sadists are a natural phenomenon, but we cannot, as
a society, accept people's enjoying hurting others. And some men seem to be
born with rape fantasies, again likely a natural phenomenon that we simply cannot
knowingly tolerate.
The truth is, modern society has some inherent limits on the
freedom of certain kinds of individuals, and I cannot see how that can be
otherwise.
