What do you believe is our greatest social problem?

[HatrickP]

Social conservatism / judgementalness / prudishness / bigotry / whatever you like to call it. Our society craves uniformity - anyone who doesn't fit in with the majority profile (IE, "normal") is regarded as having a 'disorder' or a 'personality defect'. It very, very much depresses me.

There are two issues in it. firstly, there's the standard fundie conservative attitude that anything even remotely sexual is almost always something to be hidden and restricted. The fact that there were thousands of complaints just because a singer showed her breast on TV during the superbowl illustrates that. What's wrong with it? Whom does it harm? Do these prudish fundies turn to stone upon seeing an "indecent" body part, or what?

The second issue is in my view much more dangerous and deep rooted, and that is that you can do wrong even if you're not infringing someone else's rights. In my view, as long as everyone who is affected by something has agreed 100% to be involved in it, no one else has the right to an opinion. Obviously issues like gay marriage, drug use and polygamy are the big victims of that mentality. If it only affects people who chose to do it, why the hell does anyone else have the right to stop them? Where did this idea that the majority can dictate which lifestyles are allowed even if those lifestyles affect only those who choose to live by them come from?

Example:
Pedophilia - wrong because children are not able to make an informed choice.
Bestiality - wrong because the animal is also being forced into the act.
Forced prostitution - wrong again because the prostitute has no choice.

But what about private prostitution? What if someone decides of their own free will to sell their sexuality? It's not something I would ever consider doing, the thought depresses me, but do I have the right to tell someone else what they can or can't do with their own body?

The same can be said for homosexuality and polygamy, drug use, euthanasia, etc. If it's a personal choice and it affects no one else, society should not have any right to control it.