"The whole principle is wrong; it's like demanding that grown men live on skim milk because the baby can't eat steak." -Robert A. Heinlein, on censorship
This simile states better than I ever could my contempt for the way in which society demands that every piece of entertainment be PG-friendly, just for the sake of other people's children. I'm an adult: I like nudity, sex, violence, drugs, alcohol and foul language, and I feel that I should be able to watch these things when I turn on my television. I pay the same cable bill as the people who pollute the world with their seed but because they can't be bothered to be responsible and involved parents, I have to settle for watching a watered-down version of reality, despite a voluntary rating system and the ubiquitousnous of V-chips in televisions for the past decade. You know we're on a downward slope when Howard Stern is looking more and more like a cultural prophet. Baba Booey! Baba Booey!
Howard lost a lot of his luster when he went to satellite though. Part of the enjoyment is listening to my broadcasters dance around certain words while still painting the picture.
ReplyDeleteA La Carte.