Years ago in a religious studies class, a professor of mine--no prude, he--told us a startling remark by Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner to keep us on our toes.  My professor referenced an early interview Hefner gave after he launched Playboy, in which the pajama-clad Casanova said airily, "Incest is the last boundary we need to cross."

So much for harmless soft porn, eh?

Well, as Hefner has been busy crowning the 50th Playboy Playmate, his famous publication is legitimizing at least conversation on such taboo subjects. Shia LeBeouf, a rising young actor, said in a recent interview that he found his mother so sexually attractive that if she wasn't his mother, he'd want to be with her that way.

While breaking through the last remaining cultural and ethical barricades makes some young Hollywood members feel liberated, there's a reason such barricades are up, of course. For one thing, they separate us from the animals. But, like Phil Donahue and others, Hef no doubt sees us as merely human animals, with no soul to protect and value in ourselves or others.

(Image © AP)

Comments

[Kim Moreland]

It sounds like this poor chap's Goddess Mother made Shia and his friends worship her.

How I wish I could scrub this sad story of abuse from my brain.

Warning to Parents: Do you know the family of your child's friends? Sexual abuse like this happens.

[Jason Taylor]

Mr Hefner forgot the boundry of rape, which thankfully is still up.

[Regis Nicoll]

Peter Singer goes Hef one better. As I noted in "Just a Naked Ape":

"[Peter] Singer notes that there is one taboo left standing: sex with animals. (Elsewhere, Dr. Singer has argued that sex with children is not wrong as long as it is mutually satisfying and not harmful to the child). Singer suspects that this enduring proscription is sustained by 'our desire to differentiate ourselves, erotically and in every other way, from animals'—in other words, by speciesism, which, you will recall, Singer decries.

"Singer’s logic is thoroughly, and tragically, consistent. You see, like the 'Human Zoo' exhibitors, Peter Singer believes that man is the product of unguided evolutionary forces. And while Homo sapiens may be the most advanced species on the planet, his claims to privilege are rebuffed by common ancestry. Once we accept that, we will understand that our rightful place in the animal kingdom is as 'naked apes.' From there, sex with our evolutionary relatives, Singer intones, 'ceases to be an offence to our status and dignity as human beings.' Appalling!"

http://www.breakpoint.org/listingarticle.asp?ID=6234

[becky]

Ugh! Which is more disgusting, having incestuous feelings about your mother or feeling free to tell the world about it? Like I said "Ugh!"

[vikingmother]

Hugh Hefner (and many like him including "scientist" Singer) are starting to show their fangs & claws.

All the world is open to them - and others who are "strong"---all weaker humans, animals, etc. are there for them to devour.

My ancient Viking pagan ancestors (and YOUR pagan ancestors from your places of origin) held human life much more CHEAPLY than did the Jews who were devoted to GOD...and especially the Jewish Carpenter.

I heard a great Chicago preacher use the phrase about "the dark cruel night of paganism" I would slightly modify that to "the cold cruel night of paganism" now fueled by the neo-pagan (pagan friendly) quasi religious comments of Darwin, Nietsche, & fellow travelers.

(Partial disclaimer-I am not discounting all that Darwin, Nietsche, other scholars put out---just their neo religious stuff...)

[Jason Taylor]

Well Viking, you can't discount ALL the stuff someone puts out. No one can get everything wrong.

[Steve (SBK)]

Does Singer suggest that sex with near-evolutionary relatives is to be broken or ALL-evolutionary relatives? i.e. common descent being our boundary-breaker, we are related to the non-naked apes, the giraffes, the dikdik, the yellow-bellied sapsucker, and the red herring.

[Jason Taylor]

Singer is a walking reductio ad absurdum. He is what Chesterton meant when he said that it is not that madmen have forgotten to be rational but that they have forgotten everything else.

[Ben W]

Can you imagine if the Neanderthals hadn't died out?. That would have made this debate much more difficult (and interesting).

[Jason Taylor]

Well Ben, to put Neanderthals into a theoretical argument, I think from the philosophical point of view the chief necessity for being a man is to be a spirit/beast hybrid. In this definition there is no such thing as a missing link between ape or man: it is either a hairy man, or an ape with a club. Neither of which could be told from bones. Homo Sapiens must be a sapiant species to be Homo Sapiens. And if neanderthals were so then they were just humans: there is plenty of physical variety in humans anyway.

[LeeQuod]

Ben W. wrote: "Can you imagine if the Neanderthals hadn't died out?"

I can, actually. Several human beings in the 20th century were identified with "Neanderthal" features. Most suffered from rickets or other bone deformities.

Shia LeBeouf, on the other hand, has no external deformities...