Lust in our Society

We live in a society that is addicted to lust. People in our society are addicted to please their desires of the flesh to fulfill their needs because they believe that would bring them happiness. The pornography industry makes billions every year.  For instance, “In 2006 worldwide revenues exceeded 97 billion dollars, the pornography industry is larger than the revenues of the top technology companies combined: Microsoft, Google, Amazon, eBay, Yahoo!, Apple, Netflix and EarthLink. (Family Safe Media, 2007) The media is all about sensuality and sex, but what is behind this new era where people feel free to expose their bodies and do what they feel right to do? Lust leads people to precipitate attitudes and the emotional consequences of these desires have shown a negative impact in our society. For example, adultery is one of them. “Lust blinds us. In dating, lust causes us to miss the warning signs in the relationship. We gloss over major obstacles to a good marriage because our physical desires are driving us. Lust is enslavement to the senses, to the animal part of man. Lust deadens our spiritual senses so we cannot hear God telling us what is wrong.” (Whitestone Journal, 2009) On the other hand, many people believe that lust becomes love after a while or that lust has the same meaning as love, however, they are two different types of feelings. Lust has the power to make one feel butterflies in the stomach or miserable as hell through the consequences. Whether positive or negative, there are a lot of different opinions towards lust in our society.

When we are in lust, we tend to forget about what is right or wrong. All we want is to enjoy the moment and dive into what gives us pleasure. The reason why we become so weak for lust is because pleasure is related to happiness and pleasure originated from sex gives people a momentarily feeling of happiness. As a result, we tend to believe that there is nothing wrong with being happy and that is when adultery becomes part of our society. People want to be gratified and they think they deserve to be and when the flesh speaks louder than the moral, there is no remorse in committing adultery. Jesus said in the Bible, “Every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Mathew) Lust is the intense instinctual desire for sex, which can lead one to become unfaithful to their spouse. Unfaithfulness is the most negative consequence of lust.

People also confuse lust with love and although they can be intertwined, they are distinct feelings.  Lust is a disordered desire for an inordinate enjoyment of sexual pleasure whereas love is not about pleasure but affection, caring, and kindness. After a while, lust becomes a habit and what pleasure it brings diminishes until we wonder what the attraction truly is. Love comes from our hearts; lust comes from our sight, but is it possible that lust becomes love? “The driving force of the sexual imperative bridges the gap between the almost incompatible brain styles of the two sexes. So lust can be seen as one end of a broad continuum, which may or may not culminate in romantic love.” (Fitzgerald, 2010)  When we see something that attracts us we feel desire. Lust masks itself through attraction and when we love we also feel attracted to the person. For this reason, many believe that lust morphs into love eventually. “Lust is a heady experience; the brain goes on hold and red-hot surges of testosterone run the show. Lust, like love, is truly blind. This is why, especially at the beginning of a relationship, it can be hard to tell whether you're in lust or love -- whether he or she may be "The One," or merely a passing fancy who'll have your blood boiling for only a short while.” (Fitzgerald, 2010) Others prefer to believe that they are the same feeling because love without sex is friendship and therefore sex plays an important role in love. However, what distinguish love from lust are the other feelings connected to them. When you are in love, you are attracted to the person with affection and caring whereas when you are in lust you are attracted to the person only with sexual desire.  In addition, it is much easier to be in lust than to be in love. You can be in lust with anybody who has the physical qualifications that blows the fire inside of you that makes you to want to be burned in pleasure. Love is much harder to feel. In order to feel love, the person needs to have far more attributes than just physical qualifications, such as intelligence, patience, humor, uniqueness, as well as being successful, parental, and understanding.

To finalize, in order to make enormous capital gains, the pornography industry continues to add deception to our society and continue to create the instant gratification of lust with no recognition of the consequences, such as adultery, rape, and pedophilia. Consumers of pornography find the lines of thought and emotions of lust and love far more blurry and difficult to differentiate the emotions that separate them. Pornography in our society creates lustful addiction to its media and deteriorates existing relationships of love. Its goal is to maximize our animal instinct of lust, further creating greater unlawfulness in society with regards to rape and pedophilia through the inability to differentiate right from wrong.  The more addicted to lust through the influences of pornography a person becomes, the lesser the chances for developing and or continuing love in meaningful relationships. Lust is primal and is inside every one of us, the recognition of this and the ability to differentiate lust from other emotions everyday has large tremendous consequences in our lives. As we can see, lust reveals itself in many forms, whether it is committing adultery, confused relationship status, viewing pornography, or other unlawful acts, lust has always been prevalent in our society, today more so than ever.