Addendum / edit: I have below added Woody Allen’s response to Dylan Farrow’s piece. I shouldn’t have commented on the matter. If I had not the stomach to touch it with a ten-foot pole, then it should have been clear to me to stay clear of the whole matter.
This is not to say that I am saying Dylan is not speaking the truth, nor am I saying that Woody Allen is not speaking the truth; I am saying that shit is fucked, and I don’t want to spend anymore time thinking about this. The acts as they did or did not occur are a long time past, far from the reach of my reason.
– J
//
Hello reader,
I am going to post some fairly disturbing content below. In addition to entertaining things which I find, frivolous and meaningful editorial which I write, I also like to post content both thoughtful and controversial.
Sensationalist headline much?
The post below is certainly controversial. First a piece entitled `An open letter from Dylan Farrow` which presents itself as a first person account of the authors alleged molestation by Woody Allen. Beneath this I will post a documentary entitled `Are all men pedophiles?` which, I must add, though I have no watched it, I am compelled to say that this title seems to be an exaggeration ad infinitum.
First the letter,
An Open Letter From Dylan Farrow
The above letter I have read only a portion of, a very small portion. It gets quite graphic. And as I cannot fathom a sane individual doing to a child what was purported to happen in that piece, I also cannot fathom why a child would lie and lie and lie about it. And so, being very un-philosophical, I must simply assume that the hurt individual is telling the truth; I must give the child the benefit of the doubt.
Woody Allen would like to clear up these allegations which he calls ‘untrue and disgraceful’.
I invite him to retort, but I would sooner like for him to come clean with that has occurred if it has in fact occurred.
We in the west believe that childhood ought to have such and such qualities of freedom and worry-free frolicking, and that is both beautiful and, in this thinkers opinion, appropriate for all budding humans. The world of the adult is something which presses upon us sooner or later, and so these years when we can just lay in this grass and think about anything but where the money will come from, sex, power, politics, terrorism, rape and the wholesale exploitation of the world and of each other is important. And so I am, as many people are, probably more likely to give the benefit of the doubt to the child rather than to the adult which is so accused.
This propensity for believing in the guilt of the adult seems to be a thread, possibly one which is argued to be justified, in the following film which I have stumbled upon (no doubt because the title is so needlessly provocative).
Now I should say… just as I did not have the stomach to read the above letter in full (not even close!), I have not watched the posted documentary. As above mentioned I like to post controversial material here, because discussion is important, and I am always amazed at the number of people who arrive at this blog via search engines. The way I see it, the more material which I can post here, the more which is available for people to analyze and form their own beliefs about.
Without having seen the video, are all men pedophiles? Of course not. Of course not. Of course not. No doubt the title is sensationalist, but I think it also touches upon a sensitive point in our society (here speaking to the West and/or the larger western zeitgeist which reaches ’round the globe), namely the fear that overly-sexualized men (read: men) are threats to our children.
There seems at once to be two things which come to mind: one being that having a child, and seeing how incredibly vulnerable they are will surely put one into a state of mind wherein the safety of that precious thing is paramount. The second thing which comes to mind is the real-world application of this fear for the child may rightly so affect the world such that there is a greater level of alienation between citizens. And though shielding your child from contact with adult men completely might all but guarantee that said child will not be abused by a man, it seems that this might foster a world which suffers in another important way, namely the death of community.
I guess I am just saying that though it is perfectly normal for us to fear such terrible things, there is a point where we could fear too much.
And on this I offer no solution. Well, perhaps an effort to de-sexualize the mass media which washes over us on a daily basis, perhaps an effort to look at the world and at reality in a way which sees hurting a child as hurting one’s self. But, abstract ideas like this, and pipe dreams of toning down sexuality in our culture are probably dead ends as per their feasibility and ultimate utility.
To add horror onto horror, below is a recent video from The Young Turks which talks about a development in an ongoing case wherein the bodies of 55 young boys were found buried on the grounds of a Florida boarding school which was closed as recently as 2011!
Just awful.
I have typed typed typed myself to this bottom portion of the page, and I know that only really terrible things exist within the words above. Though I am having doubts now about sharing this material, I must belay those doubts because evil like this shouldn’t be hidden for fear of upsetting people.
Blah.
I hope I am not part of the problem here, incensing people with fear.
I wanted to share a funny video to lighten the mood, but as I was Googling it in various ways I noticed the semblance of sweat was forming on my brow. I gave up before I was able to find it. The video was of a man who was attracted only to men attracted to children. The video has a man sitting on a park bench with candy watching kids, while in the bushes another man watches him with the same level of weirdness which the watchee exhibited.
Take my word for it, it was funny.
This entire post has made me quite uncomfortable.
Alright, I bit the bullet, and Googled it! I will sign off with this, and I ask that you do not take this as my making light of the situation. I guess that I am… but if anything I am making light of the hopelessness of the problem in that I can think of no real solution beyond common sense (not very effective with large populations), and secondly that the rational fear which we exhibit in an effort to help may in the end work toward dividing us, and thus creating a world which too may damage our children.
I apologize if this post has made you as uncomfortable as it has made me.
– J
a testament of sentience 
An interesting post. The pedophilia topic is, in general, bad news. What I mean by that is that is is usually badly reported and exaggerated, and it tends to bring out the worst in people – that sort of urge of people to get both disgusted by it, but also to become sort of obsessive about it. Thus reality becomes distorted, in that we imagine it to be prevalent, when it’s not.
There are two things I can tell you – firstly, it does not exist to the extent that everyone thinks is does. Sure, you can search the Internet and find many stories, but statistically it’s minimal. If you search the Internet for anything bad, it really is possible to believe that everyone is evil.
However, that isn’t to say it doesn’t exist. The ‘Lost Prophets’ story is abysmal (but note the intriguing existence of women as facilitators), and the very recent case of the Catholic Church is quite worrying.
And yes – it has sort of run out of control. In the UK, there was a recent case in which a man was killed simply because he was believed to be a pedophile, and I have read terrible advice on a parenting page that suggests all single men over the age of 40 are suspect.
I agree with your view that we seem to be creating a society in which fear rules. Like all things, we just have to be careful. Education and common sense are the answers.