Are fantasies part of the moral universe?

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In the Sermon the Mount, Jesus Christ had this to say:
Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery. But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.
This raises an important question. When we fantasize, do our fantasies have ethical significance?

There is a range of possible positions on this issue:

1. Fantasies can corrupt us, make us into bad people. In this quotation, Jesus takes a very strong position, saying that fantasizing about a wrong act can be as bad as committing it. This might be justified by suggesting that fantasies are inherently plans of action, and to fantasize is always to take a step toward committing the act.

2. A somewhat softer position might be that while fantasies are not usually plans of action, they build structures and attitudes within us. Thus, if a sadist fantasizes about torturing women, the result is a generalized indifference to women’s suffering that might be seen as part of patriarchy.

3. On the other hand, we might say that fantasies are a private and personal realm. We know from our own experience that we often fantasize about acts that we never carry out, that we never come anywhere near to carrying out. How many people have fantasized about killing their boss? In how many cases did any actual harm come from this fantasy? There is an argument from privacy here. How is it anyone else’s business what I fantasize about? Any effort to tell me what I can fantasize about looks like Orwell’s thought police.

4. Fantasies about committing unethical acts might even be seen as especially ethical. If I fantasize about killing my boss in enough detail, I am obliged to imagine the consequences of this act: his family’s grief, the loss of everything he does in the world (which isn’t all bad), the consequences of other people taking on my attitude toward their own obnoxious bosses. Done right, fantasies make us aware of ethical considerations that otherwise would remain in the shadows. A simple impulse of hatred towards my boss might be wrong, but a fully-developed fantasy exploring the consequences of my act might be profoundly right.

5. We can take an “it depends” view on another basis. Some fantasies are more like intentions than others. Sometimes, we know that we are merely daydreaming. Sometimes, we might say, “I wonder how I could really do this.” Maybe the setting matters. An unethical act set in the world of the Lord of the Rings might be less questionable than a similar act set in our own real world.

A related, and much-discussed, question is, How do media relate to these fantasies. If I go to a violent movie, is that different from fantasizing about violence within my own head? Sometimes, media have been presented as a kind of malevolent outside force that takes control of our minds whether we like it or not. But our own experience tends to suggest that fantasizing through media does not have real-world consequences any more than private fantasies do.