Hugh Heffner dies

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/ct-playboy-founder-hugh-hefner-dies-20170927-story.html

"I had no other game plan except to get married and, somehow, live happily ever after. But very soon I started becoming afraid that I was turning into my strict, Methodist, puritanical parents. I started to see that happening to my peers. People who were so much fun in high school were going dull."

The articles in Playboy railed against the responsibilities of marriage.

Italian journalist Oriana Fallachi: "He stays in [his mansion] as a pharaoh in his grave." Heffner's excesses included what he ate. "A diet built around fried chicken and candy bars."

His empire [coincided with and fostered the sexual revolution of the 1960s but] was seriously bruised by a growing conservatism in the 1980s, by the Christian right, and by the Meese Commission on Pornography. Heffner: "The attitude of the ’80s and early ’90s was very conservative — socially, politically and sexually. It was a reaction to the freedom and excesses of the ’60s and ’70s."

http://www.nytimes.com/1986/10/21/books/some-say-meese-report-rates-an-x.html 1986 Final Report of the Attorney General's Commission on Pornography--conclusion that there is a "causal relationship" between certain kinds of pornography and acts of sexual violence. Its 92 recommendations range from making it an unfair labor practice to hire individuals to participate in commercial sexual performances, to outlawing doors on booths in porno parlors...[the Supreme Court ruled that some printed material is] obscene material, which the Supreme Court has ruled is unprotected by the First Amendment.

Hugh Heffner says in a recording aired on Fox Radio Sept 28 2017: Playboy founded for "questioning the Puritan repression that is so much a part of U.S. history." John E's comment: you can choose where repression is going to come from. It might come from the Health Department pressuring people to stop spreading disease. It might come from an individual realizing that his "lifestyle" is hurting other people, or even that his lifestyle is getting in the way of him being a positive influence on people. In some cultures, it comes from centuries-old tradition that clearly shows the right way to live. And it can come from deciding that women are a lot more than a way for selfish men to get pleasure. What does it matter that one kinky rich guy had multiple women in his bed anytime he wanted it? How many men have the means to do that, and what happened to the women Heffner used and discarded?

John E's comment: What is good for a culture is the way the Bible says, one man faithful to one woman for a lifetime, making a secure home for their children. This is the type of lifestyle that can be advised for all men. If free thinkers and a few rich, selfish guys call this repression, why should we all call it repression? It is, in fact, the way for men to steer clear of addiction to women who aren't their wives.

Without a broad cultural impetus in our country toward what used to be called good morals, we have a society with more and more emotionally wounded people. And the liberals who like no limits want ever fewer limits on thought and behavior.

What kind of grandfather is best for your children, a straight-living grandfather or a dirty old man?

Returning to Hugh Heffner, when he complained about the responsibilities of marriage and sold photos of women that tempted men away from their wives, Heffner was doing wrong to men who lusted after Playboy. But the prevailing view in the U.S. for at least fifteen years has been that freedom of speech includes looking at any sexual material you want, short of looking at minors or when the photographed person's right to privacy is violated. A man's computer is used as criminal evidence only if there is child porn on his computer.