On the sixteenth of March 2014, the Sydney Morning Herald had an editorial calling for Government control of pornography on the Internet. You can read the editorial at the link below. This post is my response.
Tag Archives: censorship
What can I do?
In this article about privacy, civil liberties and the way the “war on terror” has become a war on all of us, John Pilger asks “What are you going to do about it?”
Well, here’s my question, John: What can I do about it?
Continue reading
Digital tear-gas
A discussion started on a network operators list I frequent, about a case where an apparently innocent party, Melbourne Free University, had had its website blocked. Aside from a terse “yes it’s blocked” from one provider concerned, no further information was forthcoming. Here’s one report about it. Continue reading
Kids and censorship
Kids interpret censorship as failure and route around it.
Karl Auer, August 2007
Little Green Apples
Government: We are taking ALL of your little green apples.
Victim: What?!? That’s so unfair! They are mine!
Government: Nope, we are taking them. All of them.
Victim: I shall go to the Press! To the High Court! To….
Government: Oh alright. We’ll only take HALF your little green apples.
Victim: Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you… I’m so grateful!
Government: You’re most welcome.
Censorship – my position
H L Mencken said “There is always a well-known solution to every human problem – neat, plausible, and wrong.”
Censorship is just such a solution. It is invariably proposed by people who have not thought through what their “solution” really means. It is the equivalent of flinging a sheet over unsightly rubbish instead of disposing of it; it sort of works, but it won’t be long before serious flaws in the plan become apparent.