There are various reasons not to do certain aveiros. The best is that Hashem told us not to!!
But there is another idea which was stressed in the Slabodka school of mussar - Certain behaviors are beneath you. We don't use foul language because it is BENEATH us. It is an insult to our very essence. We don't go to clubs because the company we would keep there would be well beneath our high plateau. We don't read certain publications or watch certain shows because they are an insult to our intelligence and G-dly soul.
Gadlus Ha-odom.
One famous billionaire Jew, brought up in a religious home who strayed, is in danger of being locked up in a cage for the next few years [maybe until his death - given his advanced age]. Why? Because he didn't have the self respect to stop himself for soliciting prostitutes. It isn't just תאווה. We all have תאווה but most of us would consider beneath ourselves to pay a professional for her services - especially when you are pushing 80. He didn't and is paying a steep price.
Another world famous formerly religious Jew [also in his 70's] who went OTD in his youth [and now has at least two intermarried children רח"ל] is accused of having relations with a minor. He vehemently denies it [maybe he is telling the truth but most people would lie about something like that because most people lie quite often about lesser things] but he doesn't deny that he was buddy-buddy with the likes of Jeffrey Epstein. What did they talk about? Epistemology? Existentialism? Theology? Historiography? Minchas Chinuch? Probably not. Two older guys firmly ensconced in the prison of their senses, slaves to this world for that is all they live for - trying to "enjoy" life. Sad and pathetic.
I read the following story written by a Jewish women that nicely expresses the Gadlus Ha-odom concept - even for irreligious people:
When I was a masters student, I took a Spring seminar called, “The Bible and Politics.” There were about 35 students in an un-air conditioned room that got hotter by the week. By May, everyone in the room was physically uncomfortable, as we crowded into a room that was designed to hold half the number of students, and participated in two hours of loaded discussion.
One day, towards the end of the semester, my professor was lecturing when he stopped speaking mid-sentence. He surveyed the room from his left to his right. Then he looked at the wall at the back of the room for a few seconds. This was a long time ago so I don’t remember what he said word for word. But if I had to paraphrase it, I’d say that his speech went like this: “I’m going to say something that many of you may not want to hear. You are graduate students doing intensive intellectual work. You come in here every day, supposedly prepared to think hard and to exchange ideas. To do your best here, you need to have integrity. The way you are dressing threatens your integrity. I cannot do my best as a professor, and you cannot do your best as students, in an environment in which some of you are not fully dressed. The next time I walk into this classroom, I need to see that all of your choices, from the way you converse to the way you dress, reflect the degree to which you take yourselves seriously. And I do hope you take yourselves seriously.”
Once he stopped speaking, silence fell upon the room. And I noticed what I hadn’t before: most of the women were wearing shorts and tank tops, while the men were somewhat more covered. The women looked surprised by what the professor had just said, but not offended. I’m not interested in surveying the merits of whether my professor’s choice to chew out students was or was not the right thing to do. But I can assure you that during the next class, and the ones that followed it, people covered up.
