Thank you for reliving the trauma and suffering the damage again to bring this important message forward. It is terrible that our culture has become so permissive, so morally corrupt and degraded, so lacking in the concrete understanding of morally unacceptable behavior that you are forced to explain and identify just exactly what pedophilia is and how it affects the victims of it. This essay is a clarion call, and a study in courage, to awaken the public to the truth that pedophilia can and will never be anything but evil.
I admit I didn’t finish it upon the initial release. I read the primer pieces but left this one incomplete, due to the length and content reasons you forewarned of. I figured I should, finally- I paid to read it, after all! I’ll forego the subject matter and just remind you that you are obviously a wonderful person. To go not just through the agony of writing but the double, triple, quadruple, quintuple, sextuple, septuple, octuple (I don’t know any other words greater) agony of EDITING for the sake of others proves this. Any words to the contrary will not only be laughed out of the room but aimed at a black hole and shot into deep space. Be sure to give your friends who toiled on this with you a couple extra big hugs. One for helping and one just for the hell of it. Perhaps another to help keep warm since the winter solstice just happened.
While not explicitly about child sex abuse this piece wonders if the dividing line in the west will not be left/right etc, but sexual mores. While broadly addressing sex it does make sexualization of children a point of emphasis as a red line. I mention it because it makes a case similar to yours at the end, that these are civilizational stakes. Which sadly seems to echo your sentiment at the end of part 5, that the point at which pedophiles lose support or sympathy is way too close to the end. This is what it takes to course correct?
This is a page from a favorite called The Book of Qualities, wherein human feelings are described as if embodied:
Courage.
Courage
Courage has roots. She sleeps on a futon on the floor and lives close to the ground. Courage looks you straight in the eye. She is not impressed with powertrippers, and she knows first aid. Courage is not afraid to weep, and she is not afraid to pray, even when she is not sure who she is praying to. When Courage walks. it is clear that she has made the journey from loneliness to solitude. The people who told me she is stern were not lying. they just forgot to mention that she is kind
For the child sex robots... if i could, I'd design one that would randomly deploy razor blades into the orifices. Give them away for free. #CullTheHerd.
Thank you for this piece--I don't envy you the process of revisiting trauma to get inside the heads of these kinds of predators, but it's extremely helpful in helping me clarify my thinking about it (especially since I do essentially come at it from the cartoon version).
As I read it I found myself wondering if you'd ever encountered arguments appealing to past cultures (Ancient Greek and Roman for example) where pederasty was more open and common, and marriage of very young girls was common (I've heard it claimed that girls as young as 10 were married to men in their 40s in these cultures, but I'm far from an expert here)--practices we would obviously view as pedophilic today. I don't think I have the stomach to dive into the intellectual sewage that these pedophile apologists are producing, but I could anticipate an argument going something like this: these cultures had an institutionalized form of pedophilia and it didn't destroy them--they flourished for centuries.
My initial reaction to something like this is to say that while these cultures were advanced, they didn't have the Enlightenment. They had not identified that individual autonomy and respect for individual rights was essential to an advanced society to arise. That children in these ancient cultures saw themselves as tools for the pleasure of adults didn't clash with the overall ethos that, at least in part, viewed citizens as elements of the state and should be willing to sacrifice for the glory of the polis, republic, or empire. But the view that children can be used for the sexual pleasure of adults is absolutely incompatible with Enlightenment ideals that modern Western culture depends on. Not only does it clash in principle with the Enlightenment, but the trauma it inflicts on children makes it more difficult for them to be the kind of people who uphold Enlightenment ideals.
I'd be very interested to get your take on something like this.
Thank you for reliving the trauma and suffering the damage again to bring this important message forward. It is terrible that our culture has become so permissive, so morally corrupt and degraded, so lacking in the concrete understanding of morally unacceptable behavior that you are forced to explain and identify just exactly what pedophilia is and how it affects the victims of it. This essay is a clarion call, and a study in courage, to awaken the public to the truth that pedophilia can and will never be anything but evil.
I admit I didn’t finish it upon the initial release. I read the primer pieces but left this one incomplete, due to the length and content reasons you forewarned of. I figured I should, finally- I paid to read it, after all! I’ll forego the subject matter and just remind you that you are obviously a wonderful person. To go not just through the agony of writing but the double, triple, quadruple, quintuple, sextuple, septuple, octuple (I don’t know any other words greater) agony of EDITING for the sake of others proves this. Any words to the contrary will not only be laughed out of the room but aimed at a black hole and shot into deep space. Be sure to give your friends who toiled on this with you a couple extra big hugs. One for helping and one just for the hell of it. Perhaps another to help keep warm since the winter solstice just happened.
While not explicitly about child sex abuse this piece wonders if the dividing line in the west will not be left/right etc, but sexual mores. While broadly addressing sex it does make sexualization of children a point of emphasis as a red line. I mention it because it makes a case similar to yours at the end, that these are civilizational stakes. Which sadly seems to echo your sentiment at the end of part 5, that the point at which pedophiles lose support or sympathy is way too close to the end. This is what it takes to course correct?
https://return.life/2022/12/thirst-traps/
I don't like my serious tone at the end. Go back to the part about hugs.
Also thanking you for your work. You're a warrior! Very courageous.
This is a page from a favorite called The Book of Qualities, wherein human feelings are described as if embodied:
Courage.
Courage
Courage has roots. She sleeps on a futon on the floor and lives close to the ground. Courage looks you straight in the eye. She is not impressed with powertrippers, and she knows first aid. Courage is not afraid to weep, and she is not afraid to pray, even when she is not sure who she is praying to. When Courage walks. it is clear that she has made the journey from loneliness to solitude. The people who told me she is stern were not lying. they just forgot to mention that she is kind
For the child sex robots... if i could, I'd design one that would randomly deploy razor blades into the orifices. Give them away for free. #CullTheHerd.
Hi Holly,
Thank you for this piece--I don't envy you the process of revisiting trauma to get inside the heads of these kinds of predators, but it's extremely helpful in helping me clarify my thinking about it (especially since I do essentially come at it from the cartoon version).
As I read it I found myself wondering if you'd ever encountered arguments appealing to past cultures (Ancient Greek and Roman for example) where pederasty was more open and common, and marriage of very young girls was common (I've heard it claimed that girls as young as 10 were married to men in their 40s in these cultures, but I'm far from an expert here)--practices we would obviously view as pedophilic today. I don't think I have the stomach to dive into the intellectual sewage that these pedophile apologists are producing, but I could anticipate an argument going something like this: these cultures had an institutionalized form of pedophilia and it didn't destroy them--they flourished for centuries.
My initial reaction to something like this is to say that while these cultures were advanced, they didn't have the Enlightenment. They had not identified that individual autonomy and respect for individual rights was essential to an advanced society to arise. That children in these ancient cultures saw themselves as tools for the pleasure of adults didn't clash with the overall ethos that, at least in part, viewed citizens as elements of the state and should be willing to sacrifice for the glory of the polis, republic, or empire. But the view that children can be used for the sexual pleasure of adults is absolutely incompatible with Enlightenment ideals that modern Western culture depends on. Not only does it clash in principle with the Enlightenment, but the trauma it inflicts on children makes it more difficult for them to be the kind of people who uphold Enlightenment ideals.
I'd be very interested to get your take on something like this.
In regards to get them getting their urges satiated via fantasy, I think To Catch a Predator is all the evidence we need to see how well that works.
Still an awesomely great -- I'd even say seminal -- essay. (It's the one that put you on my radar.) Stay strong and awesome and kind!