Thought Police

Although opinions on this subject - obviously - vary, I have encountered attitudes that are very opposed to the "misuse" of photos shared on the internet. This may manifest in the form of slander and harassment, but the primary concern often cited is a sexual one. Let's say, for example, a young woman posts a photo of herself at the beach on her Instagram feed. It gets downloaded and passed on to a porn site. As a creator, I sympathize with the grief that may be caused by the public distorting the intended use of an image. But at the same time, there is a limit to how much we can control the public's interpretation of what we share. I am more concerned about the porn site's unauthorized use of the image (especially if it's making any money off of it), than the notion that any number of people might view the image and think sexual thoughts.

And my question is, to what extent is that something that we ought to be able to restrict? Should a person be allowed to think sexual thoughts about another person (or their image) without their knowledge or consent? I would, of course, say, absolutely! But is this a universal response? We cannot prevent others from fantasizing about us because it is simply impossible. So, if we must permit people their fantasies (for practical reasons alone), then perhaps there isn't much to be said about what personal purposes a person might put an image to, once it leaves the hands of its owner.

But what if we could police people's thoughts? Assume, for a moment, that we had the capability to do so. That, by some power or technology, we could prevent other people from even thinking sexy thoughts about us without our consent. My question is, should we? Is that a level of control society ought to have? Or is the freedom of our minds important enough to be worth permitting people to have thoughts that may disturb us (if only we knew - which, most of the time, we don't)? I think you should know my answer to this question, and I would go so far as to say that there really is only one permissible answer. But what I'm curious about, is how many people there are out there that would say differently, especially in this current climate of antagonism toward the concept of free speech. Imagine if you could prevent people from ever having racist or sexist or bigoted thoughts. Would it be worth it? Knowing that this capability could be put to far more nefarious uses? To lose the autonomy of our own minds?

In short, I ask you: if we had the capability to police people's thoughts, is that something we should do?