hink of it all - of the life that is! Study your friends and foes!
Study the past! And answer this: "Are these times better than those?" The life-long quarrel, the paltry spite, the sting of your poisoned pride! No matter who fell it were better to fight as they did when the world was wide.
The cult of desire
"Sexpo is the third biggest annual Victorian show behind the Royal Show and the Home Show. It attracted 70,000 visitors at the weekend. Sexpo, (or as my mate Dan calls it, Christmas For Perverts) originated in Melbourne 12 years ago. Our licence plates should say Victoria: Home of Sexpo. Or Victoria: A proud porn-loving community. Or perhaps, Victoria: We're gagging for it.The commodification of sex is depressing. Capitalism cultivates dissatisfaction. Sex sells by making us feel there is some sexual nirvana available that we could experience if only we had the right outfit, toy, partner or lube.
The only other expo I've been to this year was The Bridal Expo. Both struck me as advertisements for some ultimate experience that didn't exist. Which won't stop us searching, feeling dissatisfied or wondering if we're getting enough."
::View Article::
It might be unfair to say that Capitalism, or more precisely our consumer culture, cultivates "dissatisfaction". That's a value judgement I'll leave to the individual. However consumerism does cultivate desire. Our society is filled with marketing campaigns alerting us to the existence of new products and often their social status in the hope we will develop the need, not harboured before hand, to buy them.
So what? Well the society-wide cultivation of desire, now penetrating into the realm of sex, is not necessarily as hot as might be thought. It might be good for overall economic activity, but not necessarily overall wellbeing. To quote the 19th century Philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, "All willing (desiring) arises from need, therefore from deficiency, and therefore from suffering". Translation: more desires = more feelings that something is lacking in life.
The sex industry seeks to inflame our desires by making us feel that toys, outfits, porn, other products are needed for a fulfilling sex life when in fact most of us need just a partner we love and are attracted to.
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