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Dec. 10, 2005 There's an email circling around about some atheist college students that had an exchange – you give them a holy book and they give you pornography. Ken and Skip wrote about it as well. Here is a link that covers the issue; Tucker Carlson interviews one of the participating students: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10349028/ They offered smut for smut, and they are right. Many folks are outraged or upset. I fully support the efforts of the students. First, as Ken Hughes said, freedom of speech covers them. They aren't doing anything illegal – you can get that kind of porn in any magazine shop or bookstore and also rather easily on the Internet. Second, as a student belonging to that group said to Carlson, they aren't knocking on anyone's door with this stuff. They aren't hovering outside of any public schools, they aren't sending out spam, they aren't even shouting on street corners about the end of the world. Porn permeates our society and we can blame the Religious Right for this, as we can blame them for Howard Stern. Unlike other Western countries, we have two conflicting ideas: freedom of speech, and prude religionists that many people admire, respect and give credence, and therefore power, to. This yields the banning of certain words, the F word for example, and certain body parts. Breasts make a movie "R" rated, but full frontal nudity usually gets a higher rating, "X" or "NC-17". What's up with "NC-17" anyway? Doesn't it mean, “this movie has NAKED people! WARNING! WARNING! You don't have to be any older to see this movie, but WARNING! WARNING! SEX! SEX! ALERT! ALERT!” "NC-17" is a bit like an old editor I used to use for my computer, that asked you, “Are you sure you want to quit?”, and if you hit yes, it would say, “Are you REALLY sure? You haven't saved your document!”. If you hit yes again, it would exit, but make a backup of your document anyway, using up more space which in those days was precious, because it knows better than you, ya see? The folks that rate movies know better than you. You don't have to be any older to see an "NC-17" movie, but you REALLY REALLY have to be sure, because naked people or people having sex is such an oddball thing that most of us will never encounter in real life, unlike shooting someone full of holes or carving them up with a knife, which isn't so strange...oh...wait. Doh! Anyway, getting back on track here, Stern isn't allowed to say the “P” word, but nothing prevents him from talking about plants, say, like 'pussy willows'. Or, animals, like 'pussy cats'. The harder one squeezes an immature idiot like Stern (that's right, I dislike Stern), the more he finds ways get through the cracks. Just today I watched the new Penguin animation but that came with the DVD release of Madagascar, several times the leader penguin uses the phrase, “Hoover Dam!” to mean, “Damn!” Other Western countries don't have this kind of BS – this silly battle to balance freedom of speech with prudishness. In Germany, seeing a woman's breasts is no big deal, and because it's no big deal, you don't have types like Stern trying to bend over backwards to get as close to showing a nipple as humanly possible and getting paid handsomely for it. We are an immature country. Our reaction to naked flesh is no more logical than forcing women to hide their faces or wear bee-keeper suits. What about Janet's breast? Right before that incident, we had the typical crotch-grabbing dance routines. That's allowed, even though that's less proper in public in my opinion than seeing a nude breast. After all, that demonstrated a behavior – a motion that kids could actually emulate. Yet, the breast was jumped on and caused outrage. How silly is that? Is there harm here? Yes, harm to common sense. Many of the same people that were shocked that their 8 year old boy got to see a very short snippet of an exposed nude breast not only let their kids see the distasteful sequence just prior to that scene, but also took that same kid to see the Passion of the Christ, where Jesus was beaten to a pulp. That's just plain loony, folks. Is this outrage perhaps just a type of religious PC? We have to pretend to be upset so we fit in with those that are actually very very religious? They trade Bibles – that's the big stink, isn't it? Are Bibles sacred? To me, they are books with words – and there are lots of them. There are many sources online that will send you free Bibles. If we ever become a society that puts lots of supernatural stock into a physical book instead of the meaning, won't we be closer to the Muslim extremists? They also feel outrage when the Koran gets “disrespected”. Or, maybe it's their pro-active spirit that has people upset? Like so many Christians, they actively (though in a very limited role, as I said earlier) try to get their message out. Let me tell you what outrages me and what I find offensive. We live near a super-duper mega church – this place has cash, let me tell you. They can afford first-rate advertising. They routinely send out large, glossy, professional ads to everyone that lives within 50 miles. It's always a trade – they trade a service for God. For example, they have "free" seminars on raising kids, or marriage counseling. Sometimes, they don't even mention God in their ads, you have to look at the address or the fine print. Once, they sent a very nice looking ad dressed as being from the Matrix movies, complete with blue and red pill on the cover. It was then that I contacted them and asked to removed from their mailing list. They got angry with me, telling me it would be some trouble to contact the company that does their mailings in this regard and asked why I just couldn't ignore it. I persisted, and finally, I was given a pledge that the mailings would stop. They didn't stop, they keep on sending their expensive, glossy, non-recyclable land-fill material my way. We routinely have Mormons come to the door. Actually, I have several very nice copies of the Book Of Mormon. I always act like it's the first time, so that they lose a little money by giving me another book (sneaky, eh?). Did you know that native Americans, both North and South, are entirely descended from criminals? From a race that was pure evil? Is that more offensive than porn which you can find anywhere? It should be, and they are only too eager to tell you all about it. Many local churches get together and have Creationist seminars, inviting the stars of the scene to town. To me, that's offensive, and it should be offensive to anyone; if we curtail any freedom of speech for any reason, that information equivalent of snake-oil should be banned long before nipples. Finally, those students used a tactic that religious leaders and politicians have used for years and continue to use – they manipulate people. Republicans manipulated people to the polls based on the gay wedge issue, for example, and these students manipulated the religious to get attention and press, and that they have. It worked. It's no surprise, Madonna has been doing the same thing for years to market herself. If we could demonstrate that porn is "bad", and that religion is "good", and that freedom of speech should be "adjusted", then I could understand outrage. Call me when a group of atheists burn a non-atheist at the stake, that would be outrageous and something to get upset about. ------------ About the author Frederick Smith: I enjoy writing about the positive virtues of humanism - humanists are the good guys. I now have a blog that I will start to increasingly maintain and update. Here is the link: fredsuberview.blogspot.com/ This is my second foray into the UK writing discordia. This time around, I want to be a tad more raw - maybe a bit edgier (does that sound "art-see"?) Maybe I'll address even more issues that most Americans consider taboo... About my personal background and life: I was born, I got some education, worked, ate, and had some kids. It seems I like to write � something that was unknown to me until relatively recently...How's that for detail? ;) Hate mail is welcome unless you are from the Army Of God. Please! It's not that I mind seeing pictures of aborted fetuses in my inbox, but once you've seen one you've pretty much seen them all... Email: dahlek65@yahoo.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com. Please link to this article rather than copying and pasting it onto your site (which would be unauthorized and illegal). |
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