(Untitled)

[sosoclever]

I don't listen to hip-hop, or rap, and I wouldn't allow some of the nastier stuff in my house (although I am a proud owner of The Luke LP featuring 2 Live Crew, but it's on tape, not LP). This, however, sounds like censorshipYou don't like it? Don't buy their CDs. You really don't like it? Don't buy anything produced by the same recording

Comments

[rheyamorgaine]

Hmm suspiciously like. Remember the PMRC from the 80's and their campaign against heavy metal?

I think it only makes people want to listen to it more. It makes me curious and that means I'm likely going to listen at least once.

[sosoclever]

It especially makes kids want to listen more.

I, personally, am not interested.

[chateau_noir]

Would it surprise you to learn that I'm pro-censorship?

[sosoclever]

Actually, no, but why are you?

[chateau_noir]

To be strictly accurate I'm anti-anti-censorship, which to me is the same thing but to others may not be. It's like the comment I once made on religion; in my mind, there's no value in half-measures. Some people will claim that they're Christian but will have a list of Christian beliefs that they don't subscribe to, picking and chosing at their own convenience. Similarly some people (not you, just some people) will claim to be anti-censorship but if you give them a few examples they'll say "Well, no, obviously that shouldn't be allowed...". I've got no truck with that.

I think that to be truly anti-censorship a person has to be able to say they'll freely accept any act - no matter how vile or heinous - as art, regardless of their own feelings. I could never do that, and could never support someone who would. Unfortunately I have no other magic options, and I know that to countenance censorship in any form is to invite the powers that be to steal away one's freedom. But, even so, I just can't embrace the anti-censorship stance.

I'm Roman Catholic, but I don't believe in the Pope.

[sosoclever]

I don't think that I have to accept anything as art. I "merely" have to think it's okay for someone else to have their own twisted opinion. Being against censorship doesn't mean I have to believe all the things other people espouse. It just means that I have no right to stop them from believing what they do.

I think I understand what you're saying. It's like the people who say that George Bush is trying to do away with religious freedom, but the practices of purdah and female circumcision are evil and must be stamped out of existence. Or that the US is killing the cultures of other nations, which is horrible, but the anti-obscenity laws in India are overly conservative and should be abolished. Which is it?

Oh, I know. As long as you think like me, you can think whatever you want.

I hate that attitude.