Is this our culture?

The Chronicle of Higher Education has an interesting (and free) essay about the disturbing similarities between the notorious Abu Ghraib photographs and what Rush Limbaugh calls "good old American porn".

Ypsi-blogger Mark Maynard has made similar comments, as here.

I believe wholeheartedly in the freedom of expression and of the press. Even so, it's disheartening that so many people, given those freedoms, choose to dive straight into the gutter and stay there. Unfortunately, the perceived legitimization of violent and pseudo-violent porn has a tendency to desensitize people to real sex crimes, just as constant exposure to airbrushed, impossibly idealized "soft porn" tends to desensitize people to the actual sexuality of real live human beings. The antidemocratic Alexander Hamilton once famously said "Your people, sir, is a great Beast." Was he right?