Newgeorge, you make many good points, but I think masturbation is not really germane to most of the best ones. It's true that if you're in a couple, sex tends to be more fun than masturbation (unless that's involved in the sex) but I don't think masturbation impacts whether or not you go out and meet people. The idea of driving yourself to be social by ceasing to masturbate seems perverse in direct proportion to its plausibility.

People have attached all sorts of symbolism to do with social isolation to masturbation, and I don't think it's very meaningful. Also, it gets caught up in all sorts of metaphors about self-control and restraining yourself to accomplish things, and I don't think it's germane there either.

It shouldn't really garner any more philosophy than scratching your balls does.

Which, by the way, can also very successfully be done among intimate friends :P

I stand by my bit of amateur sociology. If you look in Iran to see who supports the current regime, you'll find that it's the relatively poor people, like those in south Tehran. If you want to start a political movement that's based on achieving more purity, the leader might well be a penitent rich kid, but the majority of the followers will have to come from the just-above-poor people in the majority (or historically ruling) ethnic group.