Fascination does not have a moral compass
- Martyn Foster
- 20 hours ago
- 4 min read
Individual freedom and thought control.
Can we help what we’re interested in? What is the source of our interest? Does anyone really know? Does anyone really care? The last two questions are said a bit more nonchalantly than the first two because we do kind of know. There is a significant biological component to interest – just try to get a kid to play a sport he/she doesn’t want to – so it’s not all social constructs and blank slate theory (which humans aren’t) nor is it all individually determined. I find humans fascinating, amongst other things, and I find what humans find fascinating, fascinating as well. As we continue to tightrope any even trickier moral landscape, how do we manage freedom of thought and control when fascination does not have a moral compass?
Of course, how can we have discussion on individual freedom and thought control without mentioning the literature holy trinity in this regard; Orwell’s 1984, Huxley’s Brave New World, and Fahrenheit 451 written by Ray Bradbury. For years now many have depicted our current world as an amalgamation of all three to varying degrees – some with much hyperbole and overdramatisation – with an abundance of -ists and -isms being thrown around basically suggesting if you aren’t a Fascist, you’re a Communist and vice versa. Such is the absurd nature of modern parlance.
In some instances, I can’t help but feel that we’re overconcerned with social engineering and conditioning – all the shoulds and the should nots, the musts and the must nots – that we’re interfering too much and getting in our own way. Granted, I think it’s easier, and it certainly is made more apparent, to determine, highlight and castigate what we believe wrong for us than what is necessarily good for us.
It doesn’t necessarily have to be contentious issues either, but it’s usually easier to point out examples that way. For example, it isn’t just sex, although it’s very easy to illustrate with it e.g. taboos, fetishes, kinks, sexual minorities etc. Long before Freud was ever on your mum, uh, mind, people have always been fascinated by our sexual drives and pleasures. With the advancements of technologies this has only gone into overdrive, especially with the largely unrestricted nature of the internet. We’re creating AI partners and eventually we’ll see sex robots at some point make no mistake because our fascination will not let us cease. Only morality can stop fascination…and even then, it can only do so much. I mean, laws, ethics, and social conventions haven’t managed to rid the world of incest, paedophilia and bestiality.
“Does something morally wrong make it more fascinating? Tip-toeing the line of acceptability has always excited people, much like public sex.”
Moving on from sex and thinking of other prominent fascinations, conspiracy theories spring to mind fairly readily as one that falls along the line of do we let go or rein it in. Semantics aside as to what defines a conspiracy theory, an increasingly large number of people are becoming intrigued by alternate points of view, let’s say. A healthy degree of scepticism and critical thinking is something most people can get behind, but I think some people reach destinations which I’m sure if they knew where they’d end up, wouldn’t have set off in the first place. Still, I much prefer to bring ideas to the surface, shine a light on them and dispel any darkness as opposed to burying them in the underworld and finding the notes from underground.
I’ll broadly group these next few together, but I’m not saying they are the same thing; religions, cults, and/or other schools of thought or worship. It’s very difficult to shift once an idea has gripped hold of us, as the Jungian notion goes, “people don’t have ideas, ideas have people.” Team this with a charismatic leader or head or mentor and you have the recipe for all the captivation you can handle, sometimes even to the point of giving their life to it. Heretics still get burned at the stake nowadays just it’s not so literal.
We also have fascination in niche or obscure interests. For example, you have various anime, manga, and hentai (see, I knew we’d get back to sex at some point!). Whilst these still have massive followings, they are not generally considered mainstream. Generally speaking, there’s always this overhanging cloud in relation to a strong, niche/obscure interest; are these people just different or is there something wrong with them?
I think a lot of what I’ve discussed today depends on whether you view the world as primarily preference-based and subjective or truth-based and objective – which I discuss in my articles on Popularity vs Truth below.
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To conclude, I think we have a problem with this incessant desire to incorporate the fringe into the centre – leave them in their proper place. I’ve never been on the side of limiting fascination, if anything, this is where we find who we truly are. The main question I want to leave you with today is as follows:
At what point does fascination turn from a healthy form to a degenerate form?
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