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| More Trendy Eurotrash | |
SMH-2002-05-14 reports:
>> "We don't want to go back to the bad old days when books were taken out of
>> book shops as they were in Victoria in the early 60s or when stage shows
>> were closed down, as they were in Sydney under the Askin government," Bob Carr
>> told reporters.
Once again we have a decision
which attempts to dictate
morality,
to dictate what people see, and by implication what people think. Have we learned
nothing from the discrediting of the totalitarian policies of socialism,
communism,
Nazism, McCarthyism, and
the religious control? When will governments stop trying to be the moral guardians of the public? When
will they understand that it is not their role to dictate the morality, or
thoughts of the public, that they are simply there to stop people initiating
force against others? The answer is quite simple. They will realize this when we, the people,
do. This is a democracy. We get the government we voted for. We get the
government we deserve. Unfortunately when we vote we are obsessed with maximizing our own
rights, and we forget
about those of the people around us, and our choices and freedoms
are whittled away. Most of us don't want to see Eurotrash films like Baise-Moi, so we ignore the fact that
other's right to see it has been taken away. Many of us don't want to take drugs, so we ignore the fact that
other's right to take them has been taken away. Most of us will never own our own business, so we ignore the fact that the rights
of employers to freedom-of-association have been taken away. Most of us will never own an historic building, so we ignore the fact that the rights
of ownership of the people are taken away in the name of 'cultural heritage'. Most of us will never own a television station, so we ignore the fact that the
rights to transmit whatever they want (as long as they pay for the bandwidth) are
taken away. Most of us will never be major shareholders in McDonalds, so we ignore the fact
that ridiculous compensation to a woman for spilling coffee on her lap takes their
rights away. We have ourselves to blame for this because in our selfishness we have forgotten
the fundamental rule: It's your life. Do whatever you like except hurting someone or taking their stuff. Society is not to blame. We are.
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