From: josh@aris.ss.uci.edu (Josh Stern)
Subject: Re: Anti-censorship T-shirts
Newsgroups: rec.music.classical
Organization: University of California, Irvine
Date: 23 Jul 92 10:33:23 GMT

Chris Brewster writes:

> Frank Hoppe writes:

>>  I've found a source for T-shirts that say, "I BUY MUSIC FOR MINORS."
>>  The Washington Music Industry Coalition is fighting recent restrictive 
>>  legislation and is selling these shirts as fundraisers. ...

> There's an embedded ideology among right-thinking people (among whom I
> normally hope to include myself) that any and all restrictions on
> expression are in all ways wrong.  I wish such people would actually
> listen to some of what is being issued today, and in turn is being
> listened to (repeatedly) by impressionable adolescents, and not with the
> detached irony that high-brow liberals bring to popular arts.  Before
> you give a blanket endorsement to free speech in all forms, listen to
> some of the cuts glorifying rape, incest, even murder, torture,
> dismemberment.  And I mean *glorifying*.  Consider that one of Guns 'n'
> Roses publicity graphics (emblazoned on T-shirts and so forth) shows a
> sexy woman who has just been raped, lying dazed on a sidewalk.  The
> clear meaning of the graphic is that, all told, she enjoyed what just
> happened (see it before you disagree with my interpretation).  Don't
> worry folks, I'm not suggesting CENSORSHIP in the old form, nor am I
> anything close to a fundamentalist (or even a Christian, for that
> matter)...but I think something has gone seriously wrong with a society
> that entertains itself this way.  I don't know what should be done about
> it, but I think it's dangerous.  And I'm not amused by the message "I
> buy music for minors", if it implies that it's OK for adolescents to
> fill their heads with this stuff.  Of course there's NO connection
> between violent art and actual violence, even though the two have risen
> exactly in parallel in the last few decades.  Sorry to be so incorrect,
> and all...maybe having a wife and a daughter makes it hard to take rape
> lightly.
> 
> Chris Brewster

Gee Chris, I know some "high-brow liberals"  and very few of them "take
rape lightly."  In fact, none of them do. The high-brow liberals I know all
entertain themselves with flag-burning parties.  Yes, and the low-brow 
liberals are too busy conceiving bastards to be laughing at rape.  Must 
be the communists you're thinking of.  Natural mistake.

More seriously though, you say that "something has gone seriously wrong 
with a society that entertains itself this way," so one might infer that
you are keen to do something to improve things.  Such as...provide
better entertainment?  Better education?   Posh.  We all KNOW (or has
it been 'proved' - these epistemological distinctions are so tricky) that
'government programs only make the problems worse.'  But so does censorship
"in the old form".  What shall we have then ... maybe ... yes,

	NEW IMPROVED CENSORSHIP!

What could that be?  I know gang, lets band together to 
oppose insignificant little-known idiots like 2 Live Crew, Ice-T, and 
Sister Souljah.  Got to start somewhere right?  Once we've elevated
these dudes to the status of national celebrities and controversial
'political' spokespeople then we'll recognize the true magnitude of the
threat to society and we'll be ready to take on a bigtime (White) act 
like Guns 'n' Roses .

Sarcasm aside Chris, if you want to make a credible case for active 
opposition to anti-social entertainment then you've two big issues to
deal with before you really begin:

1) you need to propose some action which will be pragmatically effective
at making the problem you perceive better and not worse;

2) you need to establish that what you are proposing is a genuine piece of
social activism and not just another shoddy example of political posturing
and manipulation - which is all we have before us in the media right now.

Address these issues first, and THEN we can talk about the moral 
considerations of censorship.  As far as I'm concerned, the debate about
censorship and boycotts which we find before us in the media is not even
remotely close to a level at which one can talk about morality with a straight
face.

Josh Stern  (josh@aris.ss.uci.edu)