The State of Taboo, 2008

By Richard Laermer, Guest Author

I just spent two years studying trends in the near future for “2011: Trendspotting,” my new book from McGraw-Hill (www.Laermer.com).

Taboos are changing. There are not as many of them—and the ones existing will surprise you, make you think twice before going down certain roads.

An interesting insight from the Bibles.org site talks about “ways to represent Christ to a postmodern world”, where they make the following point about why traditional evangelism is problematic in postmodern society:

“The greatest commandment in this postmodern society is this, thou shalt tolerate one another.”

Springing forth from this relativistic epistemology, tolerance has become preeminent. As one writer has put it, “Tolerance has become so important that no exception is tolerated.” A person may have his or her religion, and may believe it, but he or she has no right to try to persuade another of his or her belief.

Why? Because what you are saying is that your belief is superior to their belief. This is the supreme act of intolerance, the primary postmodern taboo.

Here’s a quote from an abstract for a paper I read called The Skepticism That Dare Not Speak Its Name: “People have diverse sources of pleasure, and there’s a postmodern taboo against criticizing what other people do for fun. Whatever turns you on, we used to say in the 1960s; now we say more shortly: whatever.” Our know-everything pal Wikipedia says that a category of taboo is food. In this sense, the whole “no carb” craze was an example of a postmodern taboo. Additionally, one could also assert that the source of this taboo is the even greater taboo of being overweight.

Are nursing homes a last lasting taboo? Some people feel that the culture has pushed this to the side; most do not die in our homes anymore. Scary to think of us being among the next “there.” Who wants to think about returning to dust in a strange place?

One I feel is still intact even in today’s crazy world is cannibalism. And I don’t think that one is ever going to go away! (Who the hell wants to be eaten? I mean, except for that idiot Bernd Brandes, perhaps, in Germany. But his crime was not so much against man but against healthy beings.)

What more. Racism is considered taboo in society even though a lot of us harbor prejudices. Sure, necrophilia is still pretty taboo, if not for its depravity, than at least because it’s waaaay gross. And even though bestiality has been broached on the Discovery Channel in two separate documentaries, it appears necrophilia bestiality sure is! Some guy was convicted back in March for having sex with a dead deer! From the news recently: “The 20-year-old Wisconsin man last year charged with having sex with a dead deer has been sentenced to probation and evaluation as a sex offender.”

In fact, there’s a CNET article by a guy who says he can’t stand mass media anymore because it never seriously examines anything because critical analysis is too taboo. It’s cool, even though it only hints at what you were getting at, as it offers a contrast to how other taboos seem to be falling away …

Taboos, too, are the Do Not Seriously Discuss signs preventing mainstream, corporate media corporations’ news and opinion folks from providing honest, intelligent, thorough, forthright information and reflection on current events.

Soon it will become really tiresome to read, view and hear coverage and commentary that repeatedly and systematically deletes critical aspects of the story in question because those aspects take things beyond narrow, doctrinally imposed parameters of permissible discussion. That is going to get old soon. When the great blogs of the world start linking more than “the news” can ever hope to get in terms of numbers, the taboos could fall out.

And then there’s one taboo that even media had a hard time covering. From The National Society for Hispanic Professionals in the good old USA is a sad state of affairs:

State and local Leaders Call for Action on Alarming New Latino HIV/AIDS TrendsSACRAMENTO, California – (March 21, 2006) – With new data revealing surprising numbers of day laborers engaging in unsafe sex for money and a spiraling crystal meth crisis among Latino men, AIDS advocates today pressed state lawmakers to re-focus state HIV prevention efforts in response to disproportionate growth in new cases of HIV and AIDS among California’s Latinos.”Me again. The practice of men hiring undocumented immigrant laborers for sex has some local health experts stressing the need to educate the workers about HIV/AIDS, which is spreading rapidly among Los Angeles Latinos.The situation is disgusting: Men pull their cars up to the many corners where day laborers are waiting for a day’s work, and take them home for sex; this is done consensually instead of whatever said laborer would do for another employer on that day.

There are few words to describe what the above says about our culture. Yet when it comes to taboos this is the type of issue that deserves more coverage than others.

Taboo, then, is in the eye of the beholder. Except in cases that defy description. In which case should most Fox reality series be taboo?