Small ironies
"...[We] are relying on the courts of law to determine what is legal and what is illegal, to ensure social peace and to manage the boundaries of acceptable behavior. While they were founded on freedom and individualism, our postmodern democracies are thus becoming, even in sexual matters, more repressive than were most of the traditional societies. Here is a reality that we do not like to face up to, it contradicts our beliefs so harshly. We continue to talk in a superficial way about the terrible punishments of the olden days, and the alleged medieval cruelties. But it is our prisons, today, that are full!" -- Jean-Claude Guillebaud, The Tyranny of Pleasure, p.257