[plug] Internet Oppression (again)

[John Menzies]

At 11:02 PM 14/08/1999 , you wrote:
>On Sun, Aug 15, 1999 at 02:01:21PM -0700, John Menzies wrote:
> > I bet the majority of Australians would support the Howard decision on
> > censorship.  I for one believe that porno on the web is a blight on the
>
>if the extent of the censorshit was explained to them, i doubt they would
>support it.


What censorship?  I do wonder about our propensity for self censorship - by 
buying and readin and watching media of little real intellectual merit - 
thereby limiting the amount of quality material which comes our way - 
supply and demand - the journos do not like writing this stuff - but then 
they do get PAID - which occasionally has its advantages.


> > industry.  Sure it reflects demand and it is profitable but I bet that the
> > public execution of Christians and lion feeding would also be popular if
> > the population was suitably educated.
>
>So - the lions need to feed also. Bringing religions practices from 2000
>years ago into a modern debate about censorship is not really relevant.

Why not - things which happened 2000 years ago are not really that diffeent 
to today - Rome was the dominant society and everyone wanted to be Roman - 
the world centred around rome and the rest of the world did as they were 
told or they paid the consequences of military destruction particualry when 
domestic political events demanaded a firm leader - the emperor liked the 
have fun with the maidens int eh oval presidium - sounds pretty 
familiar.  That my comment added little to the debate is obvious - but have 
you got any idea how much money one could make out of the advertising 
rights to feeding sessions!  I would note that World Wide Wrestling - a 
somewhat similar entertainment has gross revenues of a couple of hundred 
million USD.




> >
> > Participation in the industry is exploitative of the participants in
> > product - do not tell me that a drug adict high on speed  screwing his or
> > brains out is doing so with full consent.  As for child porno which is
>
>In 99% of cases they chose to be drug users.

Em. Then why not sell them heroin - there is demand and there will always 
be supply.  What is nice about this market of course is that there  are a 
number of barriers to entry - the inherent violence, the potential to make 
some new friends - hey bubba etc



> > obviously widespread on the net - no more need be said - but it is a
> > byproduct of the lack of regualtion and highly exploitative.
>
>Child porn widespread on the 'Net? I challenge you to find a child porn
>website (a real one, not the ones using legal [18yearold] models dressed
>up like little girls and using the 'fame' of child porn to get hits)(This
>practice is morally wrong but thats another story)


Want to put some money on it - the winner to donate the winnings to an 
agreed charatible organisation.



>Whats the next to be regulated? Debate about differing religions to what
>is considered mainstream? (oh well, the only religion allowed with be
>the Hindu faith [many more Hindus then Xtians]).


I think this one is an easy arguement to rebut and you know it.


>Censorship at this level is a direct attack on the freedom of choice and
>freedom of thought that should be a basic human right.


I could easily argue that porno is good for the individaul because the 
emersion in porno could be argued to over time result in a portion of 
viewers seeing that it is of little merit and that observation could be 
considered meritorious.  But there are better ways of enjoying one's time I 
would contend.



> >
> > I oppose porno from a philosophical persective as it sees the person and
> > their unique gifts as more more than a commodity to buy and
>
>I sell my ability to write code and solve problems. Selling tits and a bit
>of norty images is no different and maybe a little more honest about the
>fact.

Wow - good one - I like that.  I think that the same arguement was used by 
the lads who did the biological warfare thing at the secret ANU facility 
just outside Canberra a decade or so ago etc etc.  Do we sue the science 
just because it exists.  We could I am sure create a race of Australians 
that all look like Arnie S - I am not sure that that would be a wonderful 
outcome - albeit we would all be wonderful actors!




> >
> > Anyone want a coffee and some vigorous discussion during the week?
>
>Tempting.


The real question which stems from the above is where did I learn to spell!




>Peter 'darkewolf' Crystal
>--
>http://cyberpunks.org/
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.plug.org.au/pipermail/plug/attachments/19990815/e6cbf782/attachment.html>