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Diseased Curiosity> Sept. 22, 1888 Lancet Article: Crime Culture Thru Press
This article was published in The Lancet on September 22, 1888.
It decries the current licentious state of the public press, and associates the Whitechapel Murders with the availability of "grossly indecent indecent publications" (pornography) "pennyworths", and "lower class newspapers".
It certainly sounds like the end is near...
Best regards, Archaic
Here's the text as the article is a bit blurry:
> The Lancet September 22, 1888
"CRIME-CULTURE THROUGH THE PRESS.
It has been asserted, and perhaps truly, that, the series of murders which have during the past few months aroused the indignation and horror of the whole metropolis, have been the work of one and the same person. There may or may not have been accomplices. For the sake of such credit as may be claimed even for criminal human nature, we would fain believe that there were not. In the total absence hitherto of any definite proof, it would, however, be mere credulity to indulge this belief, and the more so that we have daily evidence of the existence in every city of a criminal class whose capacity for evil it is impossible to compute.
We are therefore forced to inquire, "Can nothing more be done than is being done to reduce the numbers of this class and its mischievous influence? What is the origin of this moral residuum, and how is its existence maintained in spite of all the forces of our civilisation?"
The limited space at our disposal will not suffice for any adequate discussion of these questions, but there is one aspect of the subject which, in view of its important bearing on the development of a depraved type of manhood, cannot be overlooked.
A few weeks ago we directed attention to the immunity with which grossly indecent publications continue to be circulated by the agents of an unscrupulous press among young persons of both sexes. It is notorious that matter of a scarcely less objectionable kind is offered to their readers in the pages of many of the lower class newspapers.
Vice and crime rival one another as means of stimulating a depraved appetite for the horrible and the bestial. The educative aim of such writing is evidently to develop all that is lowest and most animal in our nature— the passions, the desires, and appetites—in place of that which is higher and more human. Tales of silly sentiment, of glaring immorality, of refinement in vice, of romantic passion working out its course in hatred and murder, fill up the pennyworths of garbage which are constantly foisted upon foolish and ignorant purchasers by these gutter purveyors of literature.
Perhaps a transparent veil of pretended utility, philosophy, or virtuous reproof is cast by the cunning vendor over his disgusting stock-in-trade. Whatever the subterfuge adopted, however, there is at times but little if any real difference between his methods and those of the professed agent of a system of corruption. None can gauge better than he the fatal success at which he may hope to arrive, if only he will pander shrewdly to the diseased curiosity of his readers.
Youth, untrained in right principle, perhaps overworked, physically and mentally morbid from the want of fresh air and sufficient house room, affords a ground already prepared to receive the tares of his injurious teaching. What, he asks, has he to do with the result ? If it is bad in a moral sense, he need not pose as a censor. He comes to satisfy a want, and he sees no reason to impose a rein of scruple upon his transactions, while almost all possible excesses are securely sheltered behind the "liberty of the press."
It is very necessary that an effectual check should be placed upon the spread of this disastrous influence. Much has been and will still be accomplished by private efforts of a corrective kind. The Education Act, which has opened the door to this flood of filth and over-wrought sensation, has also provided an inlet for the remonstrances of reason and religion. These have already done good work, and still greater results may be expected in time to come.
Meanwhile, we must not forget to notice the disadvantages which attend a purely expectant policy. While the floodgate is open to evil the work of contamination is going on. For many the remedy, if it comes not soon, may come too late; and in face of this fact, and of the utter licence now enjoyed by the most debasing publications, we feel certain that a prohibitive measure, though it might seem to curtail the liberty of the subject, would not really do this, but would secure his best interests, and would also enjoy the general approval of public opinion."
It decries the current licentious state of the public press, and associates the Whitechapel Murders with the availability of "grossly indecent indecent publications" (pornography) "pennyworths", and "lower class newspapers".
It certainly sounds like the end is near...
Best regards, Archaic
Here's the text as the article is a bit blurry:
> The Lancet September 22, 1888
"CRIME-CULTURE THROUGH THE PRESS.
It has been asserted, and perhaps truly, that, the series of murders which have during the past few months aroused the indignation and horror of the whole metropolis, have been the work of one and the same person. There may or may not have been accomplices. For the sake of such credit as may be claimed even for criminal human nature, we would fain believe that there were not. In the total absence hitherto of any definite proof, it would, however, be mere credulity to indulge this belief, and the more so that we have daily evidence of the existence in every city of a criminal class whose capacity for evil it is impossible to compute.
We are therefore forced to inquire, "Can nothing more be done than is being done to reduce the numbers of this class and its mischievous influence? What is the origin of this moral residuum, and how is its existence maintained in spite of all the forces of our civilisation?"
The limited space at our disposal will not suffice for any adequate discussion of these questions, but there is one aspect of the subject which, in view of its important bearing on the development of a depraved type of manhood, cannot be overlooked.
A few weeks ago we directed attention to the immunity with which grossly indecent publications continue to be circulated by the agents of an unscrupulous press among young persons of both sexes. It is notorious that matter of a scarcely less objectionable kind is offered to their readers in the pages of many of the lower class newspapers.
Vice and crime rival one another as means of stimulating a depraved appetite for the horrible and the bestial. The educative aim of such writing is evidently to develop all that is lowest and most animal in our nature— the passions, the desires, and appetites—in place of that which is higher and more human. Tales of silly sentiment, of glaring immorality, of refinement in vice, of romantic passion working out its course in hatred and murder, fill up the pennyworths of garbage which are constantly foisted upon foolish and ignorant purchasers by these gutter purveyors of literature.
Perhaps a transparent veil of pretended utility, philosophy, or virtuous reproof is cast by the cunning vendor over his disgusting stock-in-trade. Whatever the subterfuge adopted, however, there is at times but little if any real difference between his methods and those of the professed agent of a system of corruption. None can gauge better than he the fatal success at which he may hope to arrive, if only he will pander shrewdly to the diseased curiosity of his readers.
Youth, untrained in right principle, perhaps overworked, physically and mentally morbid from the want of fresh air and sufficient house room, affords a ground already prepared to receive the tares of his injurious teaching. What, he asks, has he to do with the result ? If it is bad in a moral sense, he need not pose as a censor. He comes to satisfy a want, and he sees no reason to impose a rein of scruple upon his transactions, while almost all possible excesses are securely sheltered behind the "liberty of the press."
It is very necessary that an effectual check should be placed upon the spread of this disastrous influence. Much has been and will still be accomplished by private efforts of a corrective kind. The Education Act, which has opened the door to this flood of filth and over-wrought sensation, has also provided an inlet for the remonstrances of reason and religion. These have already done good work, and still greater results may be expected in time to come.
Meanwhile, we must not forget to notice the disadvantages which attend a purely expectant policy. While the floodgate is open to evil the work of contamination is going on. For many the remedy, if it comes not soon, may come too late; and in face of this fact, and of the utter licence now enjoyed by the most debasing publications, we feel certain that a prohibitive measure, though it might seem to curtail the liberty of the subject, would not really do this, but would secure his best interests, and would also enjoy the general approval of public opinion."
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