Nature of the problem

Many people walk away from projects such as Newgon.com because they fundamentally misunderstand the nature of the problem, and what can be done at this point. These are incredibly important questions, that we should constantly re-evaluate our answers to:

• What factors have conspired to bring about a state of affairs whereby intergenerational relationships involving adults outside of the familial/state structure are considered abusive unless proven otherwise? How come we are at a point where a man can be condemned to a life behind bars for what a prurient prosecutor reads into consensual tasting games with girls, fruit and treacle, for example?

• Can existing systems of thought (e.g. science, human or child rights, democratic activism based upon these) and power structures (western democracy, medico-legal hegemony) be the only mechanisms through which we affect social change?

Well, there is no short answer as to why things are the way they are now. We could, however, look at a number of factors that have conspired over recent millennia, centuries and years, intensifying in waves:

• Demise of the nomadic lifestyle, creation of settlements, farms and pain/pleasure dulling dairy and cereal rich diets.
• Augustinian and Judaeo-Christian morality and its tendency to delineate carnal temptation as something discrete, problematic and inherent to a humanity therefore in need of adherence to religious stricture.
• The creation of nation states and the formation of contemporary, "democratic" power structures.
• The enlightenment, the rise of the scientific model, the new role of psych' sciences as arbiters of normality/appropriacy, and the accompanying conception of discrete "sexualities" and "sexual acts".
• Intensifying notions of sexual purity as something inherent to female youth (late C19th -).
• Slow demise and discrediting of political idealism (the great ideas/solutions - left and right), and plausibly "positive enterprises" for the western nation state. Rise of cynicism, "professional politics" and negative campaigning (slowly, since the 1950s).
• Medicalisation, commercialisation and further politicisation of the "child", "sex" and their incompatibility, including the extension of these ideas into a more gender-neutral territory. The ever-present need for scapegoats, coupled with the sexual negativity and religious revival stimulated by HIV-AIDS.
• Establishment of a media-saturated "culture of risk and fear", idolisation of negative utilitarianism, scapegoating of the pedophile in the absence of a homosexual folk devil (1990s -).

So how do we go about changing this order, and using its limitations and inbuilt assumptions to our advantage? How do we create a situation where age alone does not dictate what a person is allowed to do, not least in the realm of physical relationships? How to liberate endless physical attractions and sensual expressions from the fascistic framework of "good and bad", "sexual" delineations that currently entrap and problematise them so?

Homosexual precedent, and the problem with addressing the problem

The new-found status (and positive identity) of homosexuals can be credited partly to politically expedient activists who "lawyered" their success by appealing to pre-existing assumptions, for example, human rights and science. However, people often overlook important contextual changes that underpinned and enabled the gay movement. All too often, it is assumed that the historical prevailing order - far from being fundamentally biased against a once oppressed group, was simply in need of some long sought-after "truths" that would facilitate linear, incremental "progress" in knowledge and justice. It is forgotten that before "gay lib" and other new social movements achieved their aims, there existed fundamental and far-reaching assumptions; assumptions as deeply ingrained as the status and "inherent nature" of the "child" for example, is now. The role of women and the role of religion in dictating social policy, for example, both had to be re-assessed before multiple social movements could achieve their objectives. Throughout this era, homosexuals were as much created as a positive, assimilated, mainstream gay social identity as they were liberated! On a more cynical note, this identity needed also to be marketable. Looking back on the homosexual movement helps us understand that in addition to politically expedient tactics (appeals to pre-existing thought systems, power structures, markets) political movements must draw upon broader social changes, and the radical claims and theories underlying them. Otherwise, we will struggle hopelessly against the tide.

So, absent the favourable conditions described above, no one should come to a site such as Newgon.com expecting to find a neat set of easily navigable tools for the undertaking of "contemporary democratic activism" in support of a pre-existing "new social movement". At this point, there is no movement, and the form that such a movement will take has yet to be determined! We are putting ourselves at the forefront of debates concerning how this movement should manifest itself, and our agenda is clear:

Youth rights and participation must be an integral part of our eventual activism (without a broader movement to fall back on, we are doomed), and we must seek to challenge pre-existing belief systems and power structures as well as taking advantage of them! And whilst labelling may be of use at a personal, and consensual group level, attempts to label a whole movement with terms such as "sex offender" (implying only legal persecution) or "child love" (implying only pedophilia/older partner status, and most problematically, exclusive adulthood) need to be dismissed at this early, formative stage. It doesn't take long to find individuals working for our cause who conform to no such label. Political libertarians and dissidents of various forms. Adults who as youngsters, experienced a physical relationship in terms that our culture does not allow them to express! Lets encourage such people, because without them, we are weaker and far easier to dismiss!

Don't expect to go about your work, as would a mainstream "queer" activist! Many of us are constrained and chilled by what are sadly, unfavourable conditions, so we must always seek to adapt for maximum effect. Because of these factors and the relatively small numbers involved, a web-roots site such as Newgon.com can not expect to affect an instant "concrete" and "measurable" change in wider society. Indeed, we will not see such changes in many years, let alone within a few months of one person's decision to chat on our forum or upload some quotes to our wiki. Personal networking aside, our sole objective is to compile once disparate, subversive information into a single resource, publish it, and keep the alternative ideas circulating. The formation of a solid, political movement is something that will happen over time, and something we are naturally placed to influence. But until the adequate capacity, consensus and manpower develops, we are right to focus on exploration and consolidation.

Visitors wishing to make the most of this site must - almost primarily - be prepared to work on themselves. It is all-too easy for us to judge from a distance, to take a freeze-frame snapshot of 'the problem' - a stance that conveniently neglects to address our own participation in and internalisation of the ties that bind us. We must be prepared to rethink everything, to challenge our own received prejudices, our sedentary models of thought and indeed our apparently-stable identities, before we can claim to have found the new perspectives that are so desperately needed.