Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.3 alpha 4/15/85; site fear.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!prls!amdimage!amdcad!cae780!weitek!fear!robert
From: robert@fear.UUCP (Robert Plamondon)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: Possible Ban on Pornography
Message-ID: <266@fear.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 20-Sep-85 14:18:07 EDT
Article-I.D.: fear.266
Posted: Fri Sep 20 14:18:07 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 25-Sep-85 07:01:13 EDT
References: <369@scirtp.UUCP> <4500038@ccvaxa> <2504@watcgl.UUCP>
Organization: Weitek Corp. Sunnyvale Ca.
Lines: 32
Summary: Equal rights through paternalism?

> > Absolutely correct.  Most of the people who would censor things are
> > taking the position that the rest of the world is incapable of making
> > an informed decision on what to read.  That's blatantly paternalistic.

John Chapman: 
>   It's also true of a very large segment of the population.  If you
>   doubt that large segments of the "adult" population I can only
>   suggest watching the behaviour of drivers (speeding, illegal/unsafe
>   passing, discourteous behaviour, DWI, etc.) and people in a variety
>   of locations such as bars, and perhaps court cases.
> 
>   ...Controlling the access of emotionally unstable or immature people
>   to "inflammatory" reading (or viewing) material may well be a
>   necessary part of "fixing" them (to stretch an analogy, you don't
>   give uncontrolled access to drugs to someone who is trying to kick
>   the habit).

The idea that a large segment of the population is unable to make its
own informed decisions is certainly not a new one. The incompetent
parties and competent parties have been variously called serfs and
nobles, slave and freemen, non-Aryans and Aryans, etc.

Your solution here is clearly to eliminate the (more or less) free
society we have now and replace it with a paternalistic elite that
decides what's "best" for the lower classes. That you do this in the
name of equality is a sad testimonial to the way the human mind works.

"Equality through paternalism! Freedom through class division!"
-- 

		Robert Plamondon
		{turtlevax, resonex, cae780}!weitek!robert


Brought to you by Super Global Mega Corp .com