foessmei@lan.informatik.tu-muenchen.dbp.de (Reinhard Foessmeier) (04/12/89)
(I tried to mail this directly To: lee@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu (Greg Lee) but it bounced -- anyway, somebody else might be interested :-) Die Apr 11 15:45:32 MEST 1989 In response to my posting to comp.misc you write: > You're fooling yourself. You say you're against censorship, then > in the next sentence say that you're uncertain as to whether censorship > ought to be imposed on TV cartoons. Do you think censorship > is ok just so long as one does not mention the word? I believe (from my comprehension of the German word "Zensur" which I believe is the translation of "censorship") that censorship implies that somebody forbids something to be published. I rate freedom of communication so high that I tend to oppose any kind of censorship -- even though, e.g., the laws of my country forbid commercials about smoking in TV, which I do not consider quite unreasonable. To make it clear: I do not wish any legal measures to be taken against any kind of information; I do, however, not think that I have to approve of any way of distributing information. To forbid something is not the only way to do something against it; sometimes it is much more effective to create consciousness about something being dangerous (if that does not sound to abstract), and I believe this is far from censorship. > > " ... so-called "obtrusive" information. > No -- as I read further I see you think that censorship is ok for > public information, you're just against censorship of information > passed between consenting adults. Right? A plausible extension > of many people's views about obscenity. I guess public information is as important for freedom of opinion as is private information. Censorship is censorship. Yet my choice of listening to some piece of information is a choice only as long as I have some place where I don't have to listen to it. Maybe there is a fundamental difference between you and me in the fact that I believe I am susceptible to frequently repeated suggestions, so if I am told a hundred times that not eating ACME cookies will damage my social reputation I might end up believing it ... I guess things like that don't worry you but I am less master of myself, and you really can't escape advertising these days. > But let's do call things by their right names. which is not always easy, and which is why we discuss matters. So you call it censorship; I'll think about it. -- Reinhard F\"ossmeier, Technische Univ. M\"unchen | "Matena horo foessmeier@infovax.informatik.tu-muenchen.dbp.de | estas plena je kapdoloro" [ { relay.cs.net | unido.uucp } ] | (Zamenhof)