David Matthews 2 is a freelance writer in Alpharetta, Georgia. He is also the host of a weekly audio rant which you can hear at the main page.

Target: Moralism
Part 11 – The Seduction Of Moralism
– by David Matthews 2

One of the most annoying things about moralism is just how easily it is allowed to slide into society. I make no bones about referring to moralism as a social cancer, because it that’s how it moves in. It IS very much a cancer on society. It creeps in and infects society slowly and quietly.

And it’s not done by accident.

Did you ever wonder how the Sport Utility Vehicle became THE number one vehicle for people to drive in the late 1990’s? How people would continue to buy these vehicles even as the price of gasoline would creep higher and higher? I mean, these are BIG vehicles. They take up more space in any parking lot than a regular vehicle would. And they are certainly more expensive than your regular car or truck. So why were they all the rage?

Well the answer to that is simple: the SUV was carefully marketed to the masses. It was presented as a safe and powerful car, even when some models had a bad history of rollovers. They were seen in music videos as a status symbol for rap artists. They showed up on TV programs as a vehicle that was perfect for families. Everything about the SUV was carefully phrased to appeal to as many people as possible. For families, safety and luxury were the key buzzwords. The kids can watch TV and movies instead of barraging the driver with stupid questions. For individuals, power was the key buzzword. Hey, driving in snow and flooded out streets requires a powerful vehicle. Moms like safety, dads like versatility, and the SUV has been and still is marketed using all of those carefully crafted words.

Well that is exactly how moralism is brought in, folks. It’s marketed. It’s carefully crafted to hit the right nerve areas for people to reflexively accept.

In some places, moralism is imposed through the basest of human emotions: fear. Gun-toting self-professed "holy men" patrolling the streets and imposing their will on the community works quite well in third-world areas. You disagree with us? Talk to the gun. Obey us or we will shoot you right here and now.

But sometimes "holy men" can’t take it up on themselves to be the judge, jury, and executioner of moralism. Sometimes it’s bad PR for them to do it. It’s a little hard to urge "turning the other cheek" when you’re busy pistol-whipping people into compliance. Plus, the threat of a gun doesn’t really work so well if the people you’re threatening also have guns. So they get the local government to do all the dirty work for them. Hey, it’s not THEIR fault that people are going to jail for immoral behavior…it’s AGAINST THE LAW!

This is why moralists love government. It’s the perfect instrument for their power-grab. Government is the ONLY institution that can use FORCE, even DEADLY FORCE, to legitimately impose its will over others. It can go into your homes and into your bedrooms as it wishes, whereas the local "holy man" would get mistaken for being an intruder and shot in self-defense.

Of course it’s a little harder to impose moralism when you have certain "safeguards" in place. Little things like freedom sort of get in the way of a moralist crusade. That’s where the PR campaign comes in. People won’t knowingly give up their own personal power of freedom if they still value it. They have to be convinced to give it up. They have to be hoodwinked into thinking that there’s something more important than their own freedom.

That’s what’s going on here… moralism is SOLD to us in a continual campaign by smooth-talking special interest groups. Their message is polished and perfected so that all the right buzzwords are tapped.

They try to empathize with the average parent. They love to use little children as their symbols. They throw out statements such as, "Like you, we want our children to grow up in a safe environment." Or they’ll say, "Little children should NEVER be exposed to OBSCENE materials." Translation: We think like you do. We want the same things that you do.

Mind you, the moralists are the only ones who get to determine what is or is not "obscene" in this world. They are their own self-professed experts in this matter. "Obscenity" is in THEIR beholding eye, and in their beholding eye alone.

And when they talk of "offensive" materials, they always use the most disgusting, offensive things possible. Self-professed, self-righteous, and self-appointed broadcast guardian L Brent Bozell LOVES to talk about how the airwaves are just saturated with brutal rapes, pedophilia, incest, child porn, drug addiction, sadomasochistic torture, and more grizzly death, disemboweling, and dismemberment than you’d find in the Charlie Manson Family Christmas Special. And that’s not counting the stuff you see on the nightly news.

It should come as to no surprise that Bozell would pull up THOSE images to characterize broadcast television. He WANTS you to be offended by those things. He WANTS you to be disgusted by them… because if you’re disgusted by this stuff, then you wouldn’t object to efforts to censor it.

"You don’t want your LITTLE CHILDREN to be exposed to GANG RAPES, do you? Of course not! So you won’t object to having the government CENSOR such FILTHY things from the prying eyes of your LITTLE CHILDREN!" That’s what they’re selling. They’re selling moralism as "safety" and having "piece of mind".

So people like Bozell encourage you to give up your rights and to let them speak on your behalf, because they supposedly think like you do. They supposedly share the same goals that you have for your children. The operative word here is "supposedly".

Mind you, nothing is sacred when it comes to marketing moralism. Your deepest, darkest fears, your delusions, your weaknesses and even your ignorance is fair game to moralists. Whatever it is that will push your buttons and get you to give up your freedoms to them, I promise you that the moralists will find it and then exploit it to the hilt.

Moralists will talk about giving parents the "necessary tools" to do their jobs as parents… but only so long as those tools are not present. But once they are put in place, moralists will then claim that parents are too "busy" to concern themselves with those tools… or they’re too "stupid" to know how to use them.

Case in point, the V-Chip and TV ratings. When these tools weren’t present, moralists were screaming bloody murder for them. "The parents NEED these tools!" But once they were put into TV sets and video players and game systems, these same moralists were declaring these tools to be "useless" because the parents wouldn’t know how to use them! Remember, these are the same people who spend millions on TiVO and VCRs and DVD recorders, and they supposedly don’t know how to set the clocks right!

Enter Kevin Martin, Grand Poobah of the Federalist Christian Censors, otherwise known as the Federal Communications Commission. This babyface took over Michael Powell’s job as head bluenose for all we see and hear on TV and radio, and the freedom-haters couldn’t be any happier about it without digging up Anthony Comstock, Joe McCarthy, Fred Wertham, and St. Paul the Zealot and having them sit on the Commission with him.

In a recent moralist orgy (otherwise known as a "legislative hearing") held by Senator Ted "Pork King" Stevens of Alaska, Martin offered yet another seductive buzzword for moralism… convenience.

"You can always turn the television off and, of course, block the channels you don't want," he said. "But why should you have to?"

"Why should you have to?"

Well, gee… I don’t know... how about because it’s a parent’s RESPONSIBILITY to do that? That is THEIR JOB as parents!

But let’s get brutally honest there… this is yet another buzzword for moralists to use. They’re essentially offering parents the means to not WORRY about fulfilling their RESPONSIBILITY as parents. Moralism is now a matter of "convenience". Why spend time being a responsible parent when you can fob all that off to a self-appointed moralist committee and a bunch of freedom-hating members of the US Government?

The really scary part is that there are plenty of parents that would do just that! They would gladly give up their freedoms in exchange for having the government carry out some of their own responsibility. To them it’s a fair exchange. They lead busy lives, and they don’t want the burden of having to be RESPONSIBLE! Let someone else do that for them!

Unfortunately what people don’t realize is that when they buy into the moralist sales pitch, they’re not just giving up THEIR rights to the government. They’re also giving up everyone else’s rights as well… yours AND mine! The government doesn’t just impose itself on a SELECT group of people who VOULENTARILY surrender their rights so they could be relieved of their responsibilities. The government TAKES those rights away from EVERYONE, whether they want it to happen or not!

And that, of course, is EXACTLY what the moralists want! That’s WHY they prefer to use government as their instrument of oppression.

In fact, moralists can never actually PROVIDE "convenience" or "peace of mind" or "security". It’s not in their best interests for the masses to be secure or confident. They must always be kept fearful, insecure, and eager to surrender even more freedoms for more and more government control over their lives. That’s the only way that moralists can continue to keep the power they have over the masses and to seize even more power in the future.

Commissar Martin actually did us a favor with that statement of his. Not only did he expose himself as a freedom-hating moralist, but he also exposed the pompousness of moralists. Every lover of freedom and every critic of the FCC have now been made aware of the phony excuses and empty promises that the moralists are offering. They see the arrogance that these moralists are oozing and they’re genuinely disgusted by it.

Moralism isn’t about "convenience" or "safety" or "values". Those are just empty words fraudulently representing what moralists are REALLY trying to attain. Moralism is all about POWER and CONTROL. It’s about TAKING power over others and wielding it over them, FORCING them to do your bidding whether they want to or not. And it’s all the better for them if they can convince you to go along with their grand schemes. Just remember that what they’re selling is usually just a bill of goods.