The playboy philosophy,

much like its photographers, airbrushes out the blemishes. [Hugh] Hefner never mentions, and is rarely asked, about the role of his philosophy in creating a society of disposable marriages, wives and children. The link between pornography and sexual abuse and assault is unremarked. The staggering rebellion of nature against the playboy's promiscuous practices, measured in the astonishing spread of sexually transmitted diseases, is kept discreetly out of sight, like an ugly girl who shows up at Hefner's mansion.

The detritus left in the wake of the Playboy philosophy is most evident in the lives of those at the margins -- the poor single mothers who have been abandoned by the men in their lives; the girls enticed into the seedy world of pornography, where walking the street is a more likely outcome than strolling the corridors of the Playboy Mansion; the children who have learned that their needs are secondary to the sophisticated needs of their playboy fathers.

I had posted a link to this article by Father de Souza a couple of days ago. Today, I read this from it and I was struck by it anew. It bothers me, perhaps because I know of someone who was in thrall to the "playboy philosophy". I wonder what happened in the end to his children. It wasn't a good prognosis the last time I saw them. Today I read of a young Maritime woman, a drug addict, who was willing to prostitute herself for $20 to buy drugs. Is this not something we should be very concerned about?

To those who think I am too hard on the champagne socialists who go on about world problems such as AIDS in Africa--UN types like Stephen Lewis--flying all over Canada and the world to whip up our guilt about living so well when there are problems we should be giving $$$ to fix, I see immediate problems closer to home which I believe must be addressed right now. I think we should straighten out our own house first.