The decline of sex science and the decline of society

The New York Times reports that scientists who study sexual diseases have been advised by federal officials to avoid certain dangerous words in their grant applications: The scientists, who spoke on condition they not be identified, say they have been advised they can avoid unfavorable attention by keeping certain "key words" out of their applications for grants from the National Institutes of Health or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Those words include "sex workers," "men who sleep with men," "anal sex" and "needle exchange," the scientists said. Just an isolated incident? Hard to believe without named sources? Viewing this incident in its cultural history makes it very easy to believe, and very discomforting. We are frequently told that, as a society, we know everything there is to know about sex. In reality, this knowledge is sparse and deliberately suppressed. Acting upon it is key to solving our most pressing problems. [...]

On October 21, 2002, 12 Congressmen, led by Henry Waxman, have expressed concern over "a pattern of events at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) suggesting that scientific decisionmaking is being subverted by ideology and that scientific information that does not fit the Administration's political agenda is being suppressed." [...]

Regarding isolation, Prescott's team refined earlier findings by Harry Harlow on the essential nature of mother/child bonding, specifically touch, in primates. The symptoms of sensory deprivation are many, among them an aversion to touch, self-injury, aggression and head-rocking. Sound familiar? Look at a US high school. Self injury has become a rite of passage among many US teenagers, something I am sure conservative observers will explain with an increase in media violence, drug use and premarital sex. Meanwhile, hundreds of US schools have rules against "Public Display of Affection" such as hugging and kissing.

source: Article 'The Decline of Sex Science and the Decline of Society' by 'Eloquence'; www.kuro5hin.org/story/2003/4/23/182233/949; 24 April 2003