Demilich said:
Am I wrong in thinking that paedophelia is not commonly defined as sexual attraction to children but as exclusive or near-exclusive sexual attraction to children? This would help to understand the Ancient Greek relations between adults and children - these were simply one part of a much more diverse sexuality.
Norsemaiden, I don't want it to look like I'm following you around and trying to start arguments, I just find your posts to be some of the most interesting and thought-provoking on these pages. What would you say to a person who held the utmost respect and love for children yet also an undeniable sexual attraction to them? And what if this person had never and never intended to act upon these desires, and acknowledged them as the fantasies that they were. What if this person enjoyed artistic representations of nude children or children engaged in sexual acts, as a method of catharsis which helped make this desire bearable? Try not to assume that such a person was insane, damaged, irrevocably demented, etc. Such a person could be a perfectly constructive, even valuable member of society, despite what 90+% of the world would call a disease. As long as this person was aware that to act upon their desires with a real child would be vastly damaging, how could one find it feasible to treat these people as if they were a problem?
Gratified you find my posts so thought provoking Demilich.
What I'd say to the person concerned is just that they should seek therepy, which would be likely to work if they cooperated. Carrying on as they were would not be in their interests as there would be a high chance that such a person would give in to temptation. Parents don't want such people left alone with or looking after their children. We all have to make sacrifices for the sake of being socially responsible. Looking at childporn encourages its production, making bastards rich and children to be abused and raped or murdered to make the images.
As parents are often abusers it is not all about exclusive attraction to children. If sex with children in ancient society was something kept secret and shameful, then that would be quite different from it being an accepted part of society. I don't know what to make of the ancient Greeks. They had that law against abuse of children and they had rules to stop abusers getting access to boys according to this: Aeschines tells the clerk of the court to read various laws pertaining to pederasty and homosexuality to the jury so as to provide them with the background information they'll need in order to render judgment. He begins with a law protecting young boys from being corrupted in school, because "when a boy's natural disposition is subjected at the very outset to vicious training, the product of such wrong nurture will be ... a citizen like this man, Timarchus":
Law
The teachers of the boys shall open the school-rooms not earlier than sunrise,
and they shall close them before sunset. No person who is older than the boys
shall be permitted to enter the room while they are there, unless he be a son of
the teacher, a brother, or a daughter's husband. If any one enter in violation of
this prohibition, he shall be punished with death. The superintendents of the
gymnasia shall under no conditions allow any one who has reached the age of
manhood to enter the contests of Hermes together with the boys. A gymnasiarch
who does permit this and fails to keep such a person out of the gymnasium, shall
be liable to the penalties prescribed for the seduction of free-born youth. Every
choregus who is appointed by the people shall be more than forty years of age.(12.) "
Etc.
http://www.grecoreport.com/citations_pertaining_to_homosexuality.htm
Seems like pederasty was happening a lot amongst the artistocracy, while at the same time being illegal - which is weird.
Some people are capable of trying to tackle the problem of paedophiles in a rational and emotionally controlled way. The vast majority (more than 99%) by default, must be either: uninterested, pro-paedophile, or angry and vengeful to varying extents.
To propose that the angry and vengeful should themselves be targetted to change their urges would be a harder job even than trying to tackle paedophiles! The nearest one could achieve would be to make the angry view their behaviour as something that should not be socially acceptable (while in fact it is socially acceptable in that most people concur). These feelings being instinctive, it would require mass conditioning of minds and possibly chemicals in the water (fluoride has a passifying effect). Effectively it would require that the angry gain more TOLERANCE of paedophiles. With such tolerance comes lack of an urge to react against that which was previously not tolerated.
The violent intollerant reaction can be seen as being the same process as in groups of animals of the same species. They instinctively bully and reject the freak among them. Intellectuals wouldn't behave automatically like this of course - actually they run a stronger risk of being the rejects - however, the overall effect is better for the species than one of blind acceptance. The mass are not intellectuals, and we must ask ourselves: is it better that they have this instinct of intollerance or that they have a blind acceptance of everything?