It's a very strange time now in the world and moreso for Singapore. I believe that the whole issue of nudity is just a symptom of something else. There are several issues here bigger than the nudity itself:
The dichotomy between the conservative and the liberal.
The mistaken notion of freedom of speech.
I believe that
most of us (this forum) are relatively young with relatively liberal views and most would have the view of 'If it doesn't harm anyone, then we do as we will.'
Most of us (this forum) would have no problem with nudity and sexuality. I don't see why people who take photographs would have a problem with the human form as a work of art.
Unfortunately, that is not so for a majority of society and we don't realise it.
The majority is usually conservative. If we're lucky then maybe half of society is conservative and half of it is liberal.
We all have a tendency to get more conservative as we grow older because it's the easiest way to live a life. You want as little change as possible and fear of the sexual is one of the most prominent feature that a conservative has.
You don't want to have to explain to your kids what sex is about, what artistic nudity means; you just want to label it all bad until they get married and hope it stays that way until they do get married and figure out how to have kids of their own without any guidance from you. (not you the reader per se, of course)
This dichotomy between the conservative and the liberal one of the biggest dilemmas that society has.
Think about it.
Would there be a problem if everyone was conservative? or if everyone was liberal?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
We all want to express ourselves and now we have the means to do it on a massive scale; the internet.
Previously, we would just gather with friends at a coffeeshop or a bar and let loose with our opinions good or bad and trash it out there and then. We would talk, feel happy to get things off our chest and we would go home and that would be that.
Now, we communicate through Instant messaging, email, forums and blogging and who knows how many other forms of electronic mediums. We know that all these forms of communication are
recorded in one form or another but it hasn't really sunk into the collective psyche yet. We think that just because it's electronic, we can remain anonymous and that just isn't true.
It's the whole "It won't happen to me" syndrome happening all over again.
We don't seem to realise that what we say will have repercussions, whether good or bad and those repercussions are magnified on different scales depending on the medium we choose to publish it on.
Express a controversial statement to your friends over coffee and the worst that could happen is you have an argument with your friends.
Express a controversial statement over the internet and things are in a totally different league.
You cannot reasonably expect that nothing would happen if you decide to broadcast something that is controversial over a medium where potentially
millions of people pass by everyday.
It is naive thinking on anyone's part if they really think that nothing would happen if they posted something on the internet that was inflammatory and expect to get away with it.
Everything we say on the internet is logged one way or another and there is no way the average person can remain anonymous. A hacker par excellence might be able to remain anonymous but not the average joe who sits down at his laptop at work and types in his blog while drinking his coffee.
It is also unreasonable to expect that having the freedom of speech precludes us from having any responsibility over what we do or say. In fact, the reverse is more true;
Having freedom of speech requires us to have a great amount of responsibility over what we say and having the courage to accept the consequences over what has been said or done.
If you want to seek attention over the internet then fine, more power to you. But you cannot shy away from the consequences that will follow.
Should we all stop posting?
Of course not!
But before anyone posts anything on a forum or a blog or email, try to think before your speak.
I, of course, cannot be considered a role model for what I've just said. I've made more than my fair share of slips of the tongue and typewriter but I try to think about what I say most of the time and sometimes accidents do happen but you apologise and try to do the right thing as best as you can and move on with your life. That's all that anyone can do, really.
