Conference quark::human_relations-v1

    
    
    Just signed on after a few days off and found this new topic,with
    no responses!!!
    I figured it would have been hammered to death by now.
    
    I've always found that too much of a good thing spoils it. When
    it comes to some person (I use this term loosely) trying to tell
    me what I can and can't read or see really gets to me!
    You can call it flameing or whatever. 
     I cannot believe that perfectly sane people let a bunch of fanantics
    attempt to impose their morals on anyone!
    Damn it pushes me to the end to see someone who cannot control their
    own lives try to restrict mine!
    
     I love to read..and I censor what I read mainly because I dont
    like certain stories dealing with children being hurt. My favorite
    author right now is Steven King, but I wouldn't read Pet Semetary
    because of this. BUT I censor myself not some "dogooder"!
    
    The same with movies and magazines.I like Penthouse, Easyriders
    but not Hustler, but I never impose my censorship on anyone else.
    
    I put the whole thing as ..I firmly believe if we cut out this
    censorship nonsense and got down to business we wouldn't have half
    the problems we have now. The forbidden fruit syndrome.
    
     So if I'm hurting noone then they all can go take a flying s***!
    
    

    Well most people who know me well would classify me as a strong
    conservative. Re: strong vs flaming
    
    I'll be the first to complain about the goverment dictating how
    I can live. I don't need a law to tell me I should wear seat belts
    - I don't, I don't need Meese/falwell telling me what I can buy
    and read/view - I do occasionally buy penthouse as well as occasionally
    renting/recording an adult film.

    Isn't it strange the the anti-gun proponents are considered liberals,
    but the anti-adult reading/viewing/doing censoring group are
    conservatives. Leaves me confused sometimes as to just what I am.
    
    All I can say is let me choose that which I want as long as it doesn't
    interfere with other people's choice of what they want to do.
    Individual rights as opposed to group rights. Maybe I should be
    a liberterian such as David Brudnoy.
    
    al
    

       fanatics/purists + overestimated statistics = panic/censorship

    							Phil

    Yes, I got a little upset with people when they wanted to ban record
    albums so "children" couldn't get a hold of them and also to stop
    rockers from making the kind of music they wanted to with the lyrics
    they wanted to.....I'm sorry but that's soooooooo extreme.  You
    can't dictate to people and besides I'm more worried about inflation
    and economics then I am about what kind of song some rock group
    has out that parents are up in arms about.....eeeeeeeeee gads!
    
    bs
    

    WARNING!  **POLITICS***  WARNING!
    
    The reason "conservative" seems contradictory is that the conventional
    left-right scale does not capture enough of the variation in American
    politics.  A more sophisticated two-dimensional scale below (not
    original with me) has one axis for desired level of control of 
    economic relationships, and one for personal acts:
    
    
    				High Personal 		Low Personal
    				Control			Control
    	High Economic control	+-----------------------------------
    				| Populists		Liberals
    				|
    	Low Economic control	| Conservatives		Libertarians
    
    Or:
    Liberals will let you smoke dope but won't let you own a cow,
    Conservatives will let you own a cow but won't let you smoke dope,
    Populists won't let you do either and
    Libertarians will let you do both!

    (Where "own a cow" means "run a business without EEO, minimum-wage
    and other regulatory and legal constraints".)

				-John Bishop

    RE: .5   Clear definitions 
    
    WOW!!!  Finally, some language that can allow meaningful discussion
    on the topic.
    
    Thanks!!!

    
    
    The news reports that I read indicated that "Wizard of Oz" was on
    the hit list because it depicted a "good" witch and was therefore
    advocating Satanism.
    
    
    

    Not to mention the Satanic messages you get from playing the
    "Theme from Mr. Ed" backwards...
    
    Simplistic solutions from simplistic minds - this world is growing
    too complex for many people to handle, and they naturally latch
    on to "obvious answers" expressed by anyone who calls themselves
    an authority.
    
    I'd suggest that, as a start, anyone upset by the increase in
    censorship, etc., consider supporting Norman Lear's group "People
    for the American Way".  I'm looking for their address to send them
    a check.
    					Steve

    The co-incidence of the descriptions of political types with
    "The Wizard of Oz" reminds me that "Oz" is a political parable,
    or fable based on (I think?) the Populist Movement (William Jennings
    Bryant, etc.) and the move to (or away from?) the gold standard
    for legal tender.
    
    My memories of this are quite rusty, but I'm sure that "Oz" and
    its follow-on books are not just fairy tales.
    
    Dave

    re:.9
    
    I believe that that line of thinking has been discredited. Some
    people will read anything into anything. Someone I know once
    put forth the thesis that Orwell's 1984 was about a utopian
    society seen through the eyes of a paranoid, and was able to
    defend that thesis quite well. He didn't believe it for a minute,
    but was only demonstrating how one can make any sort of wild
    interpretation of a work.
    
    The reply about these people taking away free will (which in
    essence means that they think they know better than God) makes
    a very good point.
    
    These people claim that they don't want their children (or others'
    children) tempted by "evil" things. As far as I'm concerned, if
    they bring up their children "right" (ie. what *they* think is
    right and proper), their children will reject this material just
    as they themselves reject it.
    
    --- jerry

    Re: .8
    
    When you find the address, please let me know. 
    --
    							Seth

    People for the American Way
    Post Office Box 37106
    Washington DC 20013
    
    and tell them Patrick Sweeney sent you...