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 sexual morality, and the creation of discreet "sexualities" and "sexual acts".
• The creation of nation states and the formation of contemporary, "democratic" power structures.
• The enlightenment, the rise of the scientific model, and the new role of psych' sciences as arbiters of normality/appropriacy.
• Intensification of notions of sexual purity as 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 AIDS sex-negativity and the vacating erasure of the homosexual as folk devil of choice (1970s -).
• Establishment of a media-saturated "culture of risk and fear", idolisation of negative utilitarianism (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, including in the realm of physical relationships? How do we liberate these endless physical attractions and sensual expressions from the fascistic framework of "good and bad", "sexual" delineations that currently entrap and problematise them so?

Whilst "gay lib" was in part achieved via an appeal to pre-existing assumptions (human rights, science) people often forget the broader changes underpinning the movement, naively assuming that the system was right all along, only "waiting" and "searching" for the "truth", as it "progressed" in a timeless and linear fashion. They forget that before gay lib and other new social movements achieved their aims, there existed some fundamental and far-reaching assumptions that were 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 (including gay) could achieve their aims. On a more cynical note, the "Gay" had to become an acceptable and discreet, apparently assimilated mainstream social identity, and not only that, but a marketable one.

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". 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 on the form that said movement should take, 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 rock the boat in the way that a more mainstream queer activist would! Many of us are constrained by a number of unique factors at this stage, so we must always seek to adapt. 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, not in many years let alone within a few months of one person's decision to chat on its forum or upload some quotes to its wiki. Apart from personal networking, our sole objective is to compile once disparate, subversive information into a single resource, publish it, and keep these 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.