Message from discussion Moral Panic

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Subject: Re: Moral Panic
Date: Mon, 25 Jun 2007 21:36:46 -0700
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David Moss has cut through some bull:

<snip respectfully>

> We are currently in the throes of another moral panic, this time centred
> on indigenous child abuse.
>
> Rationality can do nothing to prevent this panic from running its
> course. Once a moral panic has begun it takes on a life of its own. It
> is unstoppable once underway.
>
> All we can do is recognise the process and take it into account in our
> own thinking.

This latest issue of "moral panic" is quite a few degrees worse than
those that have been conjured before.
Child abuse has a greater success to enrage people because it is
digging a lot deeper into peoples' minds playing on the instinctual
urge to protect the young and to deal with centuries long conditioning
which effects our general attitudes to sexual behavior on a very basic
level.

This "moral panic" has been specially engineered to push everything
into the background ensuring the reelection of the present government.

> Hopefully enough people will keep cool heads during the panic to steer
> the situation toward an desirable and achievable outcome.

I wish I could share your optimism.

> The politicians who started the panic hope to surf the wave of public
> opinion to electoral success later this year. are they skillful enough
> to stay on their boards, or of they will be displaced by more skillful
> surfers.

Remains to be seen. Would be nice to be able to predict the future at
least on the short term.

> We can only hope the less fortunate members of our society, those in the
> bottom socioeconomic levels, are not too badly injured as they are
> scraped across the moral coral in the backwash.

Well, there are always losers when certain unscrupulous bullies in our
society decide to satisfy their ambitions (yet again) at a cost to the
rest of the population.

What is sad about all of this is that the indigenous population does
have quite a few problems which need urgent attention. Yet instead of
a problem solving we will see meaningless sacrifices on the altar of
political zealotry and ideological bullshitting.

=D6rd=F6g (The friendly Hungarian Devil in service of aus.politics and
Usenet)
## I usually treat pests with pesticide.
That goes for the lying rodent too! ##