Jim Raynor wrote:But just because someone isn't victimized in the classic sense of rape doesn't mean that it should be considered normal, healthy behavior.
There is a difference between viewing something as pointless (& arguably dysfunctional in a personal sense), and viewing it as damaging to society. The basic criteria is, if someone engages in an activity, and by doing so causes no harm to anyone else, and does not create a burden on society, then society has no reason to restrict that activity (there may be reasons for the
individual to avoid them - but society as a whole shouldn't give a toss).
Therefore, before an activity should be judged as unacceptable, two things have to be established:
- 1. The existence of harm to an individual, or the creation of a burden on society.
- 2. A direct causal link between the activity and the harm/burden, such that, if the activity were eliminated, the harm would be reduced or eliminated.
Often, the harm/burden are illusory, and created by society, rather than being an inherent consequence of the act (for example, how many homosexuals have suffered mental problems because many members of society still find the idea of gays somehow 'threatening'? The cause of these problems is the attitude
towards homosexuality, not homosexuality itself)
Going by your reasoning, shouldn't parents control their urges for their own children, and siblings with attractions to each other learn to keep away?
Actually, what I'm arguing on this is that the mental health and well-being of adults needs to be considered differently from that of children.
Children are granted special protection by society - they are judged to be insufficiently experienced to predict long-term consequences of their actions. Hence, they are restricted from certain activities (e.g. voting, sexual consent, buying alcohol & cigarettes), as they are judged incapable of making an informed decision (the current arbitrariness of the division between child/adult is an argument for another time, OK? For the sake of this discussion, let's just take the existing 'coming of age' laws as a given. If you really want to argue that point, start a different thread - I don't like the current system either, but I also don't have any better ideas than an arbitrary age limit).
This means, society takes certain actions to protect children - one of the most obvious of which is statutory rape. The child is judged incapable of granting informed sexual consent, so the sex is considered non-consenting. Society takes responsibility for the child's decision.
With adults, they are generally assumed to be able to take care of their own mental well-being. Hence, if society is going to be consistent, consensual incest is just as much a "victimless crime" as homosexuality used to be (and still is in some places).
The arguments you are advancing against consensual incest are
exactly those which were used to demonise homsexuality. Does this mean
I would want to sleep with my family members? Hell, no. But then, I don't have a problem with homosexuality either, and that doesn't mean I want to sleep with guys.
Like I said before, each and every one of us has drawn lines as to what is considered ok. Not that this is exactly a bad thing. Say things as they are. Like I said before, some things are just downright messed up, and being PC about it won't change that.
Yes - but the point here is to be self-consistent. The arguments used against things like consensual incest are the same as those that used to be used against homosexuality. So, the following situations are possible:
- The arguments are valid, and homosexual acts should have stayed illegal.
- The arguments are not valid, and consensual incest is nobody else's business.
- There is some qualitative difference between homosexuality and consensual incest which makes this a false analogy.
It used to be that the negative effects of inbreeding resulted in the qualitative difference that made consensual incest something society was justified in banning. However, the advent of contraceptives & abortion means that society's interest is limited to ensuring that such encounters do not produce children - the act of consensual sex is nobody else's business.
"People should buy our toaster because it toasts bread the best, not because it has the only plug that fits in the outlet" - Robert Morris, Almaden Research Center (IBM)
"If you have any faith in the human race you have too much." - Enlightenment
