University of Virginia Library

Nothing New

The commission didn't find anything
new to anyone but the Senate
ostriches. It affirmed that Americans
weren't particularly bothered
by pornography, they had such
trifling matters as Vietnam, the
economy and crime to worry
about; that 80% of adult males have
in their lifetimes been voluntarily
exposed to explicit sexual material,
although "only" 40% have been so
exposed on a regular basis in the
last five years. Armed with such
evidence, the commission recommended,
not more laws, but repeal
of present statutes.

Thus, the commission walked
into a kangaroo court and was
hung. Rather than accept the report
as the result of the honest and
professional work of reasonably intelligent
men, the Senate voted to
deny any complicity in the matter.
The Senators turned the commission
members' minds into "marshmallows"
and their morals into salt.
They cast doubt on the character,
competence and intelligence of the
commission members.

This is the regrettable self-righteousness
that you would expect in
so fluid an area as legislative morality.
Still, it would be interesting to
know just what was going on in our
Senator's birdseed minds as they
reacted with disgust to the findings
of three years and $1 million worth
of research. The fact that it was a
stale Johnson committee must have
been a factor, given the current
trend to repudiate everything Johnsonesque.