"Without full information, people can't make good choices."


If there is anything that demonstrates the intellectual corruption of modern culture it is the systemmatic cognitive dissonance whereby the modern mind shies away from the obvious causes of problem in favor of scapegoats.  So, we have a Catholic pedophile scandal where over 85% of the victims were male and the problem is determined to be "celibacy" and not "homosexuality."  Likewise, we have an economic collapse caused by a ponzi scheme of mortgage investment and no one is permitted to ask how it was that so many Americans were permitted to obtain credit they could never afford to repay because the answer is that the government made mortgage such loans available on the basis of race.  AIDS is a problem in Africa, and the convenient answer is that the problem is the Catholic Church's position on condoms because, obviously, the people who are spreading the virus are all Catholics with a liberal position on promiscuity and homosexuality but a surprisingly conservative position on Humani Vitae.
 
One thing that all of these issues have in common is that our self-deception - our cognitive dissonance - caused by our refusal to look at our sacred cows is keeping us from finding the solution to our problems. "Without full information, people can't make good choices."



Janet Smith targets the cognitive dissonance in this essay:

I blame the media, and to a great extent, the entertainment world. It is a rare parent who doesn't find the media to be tremendous threats to forming their children well, especially when it comes to sexual morality. All of us are bombarded daily with seductive sexual imagery and the glorification of sexual immorality, from advertisements to nearly every TV show and any nonanimated film. Some films do show the terrible life consequences of irresponsible sexuality, but most entertainment presents irresponsible sexuality as normative and falsifies the all-too-common consequences.


Why don't reporters harass script writers and producers and others responsible for what appears in the media, instead of further harassing the Holy Father? Why don't they ask questions such as, "Aren't you concerned that the way you portray casual sex as exhilarating and satisfying will lead young people to engage in sex recklessly?" "Don't you feel responsible to some extent for all the unwed pregnancies, abortions, sexually transmitted infections, broken hearts and broken lives?" This would focus our public debate on how those who create our cultural icons are tearing down family values brick by vital brick.

There is also a dearth of reporting about the consequences of unwed pregnancy for the people involved, for the economy and the culture. There is a lack of reporting about the reality of the homosexual lifestyle; the number of lifetime partners, of anonymous sex, of shortened lifespans. Without full information, people can't make good choices.

If any food or drug led to the amount of disease, poverty, and general human unhappiness that is caused by reckless sexuality, there would be a full-fledged media campaign attempting to alert people to the danger. Is global warming a worse danger than reckless sexuality, which may be said to create an imbalance in our personal and culture moral "ecosystem"? Is overeating a worse danger than reckless sexuality, resulting as it does in a warped and cynical self-image? Is lack of recycling or oil spills worse than reckless sexuality, which trains us to disrespect and ignore our bodily dignity?

Why can't the media see what is in truth one of the worse threats to human happiness that lurks right under our noses? Why do they continue to fixate on the Pope and condoms, when the world needs to hear about sexual responsibility? Why?