Generally at Failed State we take a progressive view of things. We are not prudish or religious. I want to make that clear at the start because the traditional left can get a bit confused about pornography, women's rights, promiscuity and liberal thinking.

As a society, we are getting over-sexed. Sex is everywhere - on the TV, in music, on the radio, in magazines, on billboards. It has become a problem that progressive minded people can no longer ignore.

So what's your problem with sex?

I don't have a problem with it. It is natural, and it is normal, and everybody wants it at least sometimes. The problem is not too much sex but, to misquote British Rail "the wrong kind of sex".

Let's be less British for a second and talk frankly about sex. Good sex has two main components, physical pleasure and emotional pleasure.

Physical pleasure is easy, and in this day and age relatively plentiful. That is not necessarily a big problem, people go out, go home together, have their fun, and do the whole thing again with someone else the next Saturday. It's what they chose to do and there is certainly no reason why they should be forced by law to stop, as some religious zealots would like.

The problem is that this type of behavior is becoming more and more mainstream and normal for all. There has always, since time eternal, been a bit of nookie going on, even in the strictest of societies. But now it is widespread and public it has become something rather unpleasant - a search for instant physical gratification. That brings us back to good sex, which is only 50% physical gratification.

So what used to be, in more innocent times, a build up of desire culminating in a dangerous and desperate liaison has now become as exciting as drinking a pint of beer or eating a chocolate bar. Just something you do that feels nice, if you can be bothered or have nothing better to do. Sex has lost its sex appeal.

People enjoy it.

Yes, people do enjoy it. But let's go back to the chocolate bar analogy. If you feel really hungry and you eat a chocolate bar it tastes great. If you eat three you start to feel sick. If you eat one everyday you forget how good they are and take them for granted, they become pleasant yet mundane. Sex is no different.

Through popular music and "lad mags" like loaded we are given the impression that constant, regular, dispassionate sex is the most important and best thing in life. It is not.

What the media gives us now is a new legitimacy of pornography. On BBC Radio 1 at about 5:30 last week (a time when literally hundreds of thousands of children are listening) the presenter gave a clear advert for a 3D edition of Loaded magazine, including a description of how a topless model's breasts looked through 3D specs. All harmless enough on its own. But it was not on its own. Now children and early teenagers are being constantly bombarded with, and sold, sex and sexual attractiveness from all quarters - to sell clothes, music, make-up, and to increase audience figures for TV and Radio.

There has long been a tradition of explicit lyrics with reference to sex and violence in some types of music, even going back through the ages. But now a great deal of manufactured pop and R and B music, which is created for the young teenage market, is nothing more than a constant stream of blatant physical promiscuity in which sex and in particular women are seen as very short-term concerns. Encouraging teenagers to have sex, especially outside committed relationships, with little thought for their physical safety is highly damaging. What is more, the teenagers who will fall for these cynical marketing gimmicks are the insecure ones who have little parental support in trying to differentiate between a music video and real life.

Insecurity is an important theme here. At the beginning I suggested that there were two important aspects of sex: physical pleasure and emotional pleasure. In fact there is a third new one: the pleasure of gaining notoriety by boasting about sex afterwards. This used to be the preserve of the "lad" but is now widespread. Again, it is insecurity that drives people today to seek to prove themselves, be accepted, and constantly be the centre of attention.

The outcome of all this is unwanted pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases, further lack of self-esteem and self-respect in boys and girls and a society where stable long-term relationships are becoming ever more rare, as selfish people look for their quick drunken kicks wherever they can find them.

Perhaps the sickest thing of all is that this new pornographic society is driven by commercial interests that get richer on societies ills.