Length: 108:02 minutes Date: 08/11/2012 Two mass murders in quick succession got me wondering—yet again—why America is so murderously violent, both abroad and at home. Obviously, there is a rich and tangled tapestry of reasons, one being our sheer number of citizens (statistically, we’re likely to have more mass murders than other countries). Another is the relative convenience with which Americans can acquire automatic weapons; in some states, like Alabama, it’s easier to buy a gun than a sex toy. Speaking of sex, another reason for all the all-American violence might be that the American Brain leans more toward the “Might Makes Right” than the “Make Love, Not War” school of thought. This is partly an American tradition; our nation was founded by Puritans who came to a new land, brimming with religiously inspired, passionately anti-sex fervor, and essentially mass-murdered most of the natives so they could live in “peace.” That tradition is carried on by an American media and ratings system that consistently rewards violent programming packed with shootings, stabbings and bombings with G or PG ratings, but smacks an X or NC-17 on any film that shows a simple nipple. Shooting someone in the breast is considered PG, as long as that breast is clothed. What does it mean to grow up under the influence of the consistent American media message that gun shots are “cleaner” and more acceptable than cum shots? At the very least, it’s one more reason that a deeply frustrated, psychotic individual might grab a semiautomatic weapon and mow down his neighbors, rather than just shooting the gun between his legs and taking a nap. As my favorite developmental neuropsychologist, Dr. James Prescott, found through lab tests with animals and cross-cultural analyses of human societies: “Pleasure and violence have a reciprocal relationship, that is, the presence of one inhibits the other… A raging, violent animal will abruptly calm down when electrodes stimulate the pleasure centers of its brain. Likewise, stimulating the violence centers in the brain can terminate the animal’s sensual pleasure and peaceful behavior. When the brain’s pleasure circuits are ‘on,’ the violence circuits are ‘off,’ and vice versa…As either violence or pleasure goes up, the other goes down.” Our kissing cousins, the bonobos, show us the way. Whereas common chimps tend to control sex through violence, bonobos control violence with sex. We humans, being about as equally close to bonobos as we are to common chimps, have our erotic bonobo side and our more violent and authoritarian (and Republican?) common chimp side. Personally, I’m rooting for our bonobo side to take over before we blow each other up. I don’t believe in censorship, except the kind that stops folks from yelling “fire!” in the proverbial crowded theater. So I gathered together a congregation of pundits, publishers, porn stars and puppets (amazing marionettes created by the Team America: World Police “Puppet Man”, actually, but more on that in a minute) to address these sex, life and death issues in the Womb Room broadcast studio.

The “sexy schoolgirl” look is one of the world’s most ubiquitous and beloved clothing-oriented fetishes. Oh, those little plaid skirts, crisp white blouses, flirty sailor bloomers, restrictive ties, childlike knee socks and other school uniform accoutrements! How they stir feelings of arousal, nostalgia, innocence, sweet frustration (aka “tease and denial”) and titillating naughtiness in the uniform wearer (who could be female, male or transgender) and the partner (who might “play” a teacher, dominant disciplinarian or other school authority), as well as the schoolgirl uniform-loving voyeur. Our dear friend Master D, prominent dominant in LA’s BDSM scene and grandson of Australia’s late legendary nightclub king, Abe “Mr. Sin” Saffron, has been a passionate fan of the schoolgirl look since he himself was a schoolboy. So on the occasion of his 40th birthday, I dressed up as a sexy “head mistress” schoolteacher (complete with short houndstooth plaid skirt, professorial sweater, Sex Week at Yale hat and thong) and transformed the Womb Room into a College of Carnal Knowledge filled with a dizzying array of short plaid skirts, Spongebob shirts, raging hormones, various corporal punishments and lessons in love. Tonight’s standardized test: LAPDANCING. Pay attention or get spanking detention! Note: Though there are indeed actual “schoolgirls” in attendance for the festivities, they are all college or post-graduate students over the age of 18. By putting on this schoolgirl-themed show and party, we are in no way trying to encourage or “play into” society’s eroticization of underage girls. We are just responding to it—since we can’t help but be affected by it—by outfitting grown women (and men) in the titillating garb that so many twisted cultures around the world encourage us to desire but forbid us to touch.

Two mass murders in quick succession got me wondering—yet again—why America is so murderously violent, both abroad and at home. Obviously, there is a rich and tangled tapestry of reasons, one being our sheer number of citizens (statistically, we’re likely to have more mass murders than other countries). Another is the relative convenience with which Americans can acquire automatic weapons; in some states, like Alabama, it’s easier to buy a gun than a sex toy. Speaking of sex, another reason for all the all-American violence might be that the American Brain leans more toward the “Might Makes Right” than the “Make Love, Not War” school of thought. This is partly an American tradition; our nation was founded by Puritans who came to a new land, brimming with religiously inspired, passionately anti-sex fervor, and essentially mass-murdered most of the natives so they could live in “peace.” That tradition is carried on by an American media and ratings system that consistently rewards violent programming packed with shootings, stabbings and bombings with G or PG ratings, but smacks an X or NC-17 on any film that shows a simple nipple. Shooting someone in the breast is considered PG, as long as that breast is clothed. What does it mean to grow up under the influence of the consistent American media message that gun shots are “cleaner” and more acceptable than cum shots? At the very least, it’s one more reason that a deeply frustrated, psychotic individual might grab a semiautomatic weapon and mow down his neighbors, rather than just shooting the gun between his legs and taking a nap. As my favorite developmental neuropsychologist, Dr. James Prescott, found through lab tests with animals and cross-cultural analyses of human societies: “Pleasure and violence have a reciprocal relationship, that is, the presence of one inhibits the other… A raging, violent animal will abruptly calm down when electrodes stimulate the pleasure centers of its brain. Likewise, stimulating the violence centers in the brain can terminate the animal’s sensual pleasure and peaceful behavior. When the brain’s pleasure circuits are ‘on,’ the violence circuits are ‘off,’ and vice versa…As either violence or pleasure goes up, the other goes down.” Our kissing cousins, the bonobos, show us the way. Whereas common chimps tend to control sex through violence, bonobos control violence with sex. We humans, being about as equally close to bonobos as we are to common chimps, have our erotic bonobo side and our more violent and authoritarian (and Republican?) common chimp side. Personally, I’m rooting for our bonobo side to take over before we blow each other up. I don’t believe in censorship, except the kind that stops folks from yelling “fire!” in the proverbial crowded theater. So I gathered together a congregation of pundits, publishers, porn stars and puppets (amazing marionettes created by the Team America: World Police “Puppet Man”, actually, but more on that in a minute) to address these sex, life and death issues in the Womb Room broadcast studio. In terms of the issues, my guests agree to disagree on some points (like the Second Amendment), but we all love the beautiful, naked bodies and the hot, passionate sex that emerges, as it fortunately does in so many glorious editions of The Dr. Susan Block Show. The night climaxes with a cum shot, not a gun shot, in the after-party. So in the Sex vs. Violence competition, sex wins! At least here in BonoboVille, sex wins.

With shocking news of the Sandy Hook massacre painfully fresh in our minds, many of us are searching for ways to process and combat the evil that would drive a fellow human to mass murder, as we gather in churches, mosques and temples around the nation. Here in the Womb Room sanctuary of our “Church” of BonoboVille, we ethical hedonists also gather together to honor the fallen and fight evil with its opposite and, in a way, its antidote: love. And I’m not just talking about ethereal love for God or humankind; I’m talking about physical love: hugging, touching, rubbing, kissing and yes, making love, e.g., having sex. It’s the Bonobo Way of peace through pleasure. From the Olympian hardcore lovemaking of a husband and wife to the communal ecstasy that envelopes the congregation as we dance, drum, spank, suck, fuck, squirt and revel in live music inspired by ancient tribes, we celebrate the spirit of eros (love), the counterpoint to thanatos (death) throughout this show.