Re: Censorship--I Demand a Retraction!

[tcmay@netcom.com (Timothy C. May)]

> 
> > P.S. I can't _believe_ a Cypherpunk is actually advocating censorship.
> 
> ...
> 
> Gee Tim...  I think we might have to send you back to the indoctrination
> center for some vocab' rehabilitation.  After all, there are probably
> children reading this list.
> 
> If I recall (and it's been a couple years since I read this),
> Vonnegut makes the argument that the whole concept of obscenity
> and it's censorship is a Victorian thought control device.  Whether
> it's TV executives putting per hour quota's on forbidden words, or
> yokeles getting _Lysistrada_ pulled from highschool classics courses,
> it's censorship and it's obscene.

Whew! Thanks, Brad, for setting me straight on this. I _did_ think you
were endorsing censorship, not having seen the Vonnegut piece and not
knowing he was making an ironic point.

In my defense, to the extent there _is_ one, I've seen public figures
go dotty (and I _do_ mean like Dorothy) in their old age, supporting
all kinds of strange and fascist positions in defense of the Old
Order. But I guess that in Vonnegut's case, that would be too
unbelievable. (In Heinlein's case, though.....)

I'm fucking relieved.

--Tim May


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