(This post is a response to The Mosh Pit's post about censorship.)
I must wholeheartedly disagree with you, Garrett. I don't see censorship as a major concern in today's more tolerant, liberal society. The far more important issue is that of constant scapegoating of vaguely controversial media, like music, movies, and video games. However, even that is coming to a bit of a finality. Still though, it is far worse for fans of these media than censorship because the majority of censorship comes from this baseless blame.
See, the art of scapegoating is essentially a means of deflecting blame to someone/thing/where else. For example, rather than admit their fault in the shambles they called an economy, post-WWI Germans were eager to blame someone else. Hitler came forward, spouting off about the Jews' supposed control of the banks and all the world's money and claimed conspiracy. Thus, in the minds of common Germans, the concentration camps were at worst a neutral issue in their minds; an "out of site, out of mind" policy, if you will. Things have changed in Germany, but the example remains as relevant as ever.
Parents began straying from traditional punishment-based parenting around the 60's and 70's, in an effort to "not become their fathers". However, once is came to punishing their kids for ill behavior, they were unwilling to take necessary measures. Their unwillingness culminated during their children's teen years, when the lack of punishment for misdeeds resulted in children everywhere (in the U.S.) taking an attitude of "You can't punish me". Teachers everywhere lost faith in humanity, parents lost control of their kids, and politicians looked (like they commonly do) for a way to spin a negative into a positive. In comes, first, heavy metal.
What could be easier to blame than a music teaching kids to question the world as it is handed to them? "We're Not Gonna Take It". "You've Got Another Thing Comin'". The "KISS Army". These kids are obviously the scum of the Earth, and violate every human right known to man... right?
Except that they dont. In fact, they go with tradition: when your reality sucks, do what you can to positively alter it. History supports me on this, many times over. Being American (and not having ever taken a serious World History class [not my choice, by the way]) I think I'll use American History to support.
Reality: A king 3000 miles away is taxing the shit out of everything you buy, making arbitrary rules just because, and making YOU pay for wars you aren't fighting.
Alteration: Form your own country after fighting your American ass off for it.
Reality: Economic sinkhole just opened up and swallowed the world market.
Alteration: Join a growing war that we (thanks to an attack on our soil) have a stake in, convert factories and such at home into a war economy, make money, end war by using history's first true "Super-Weapon".
But, of course, the blame is on metal, simply because it talks about issues politicians would rather we were in the dark about. The music isn't aggressive, it's violent. The lyrics aren't political, they're anti-government. The appearance isn't about evoking a good fear in fans or about attracting attention to increase record sales, it's about worshiping Satan. Everything is twisted, everything is distorted, and everything about us is EVIL.
Video games come along and, with each generation of consoles becoming "more realistic", the blame shifts to them. Jack Thompson made his entire law career (which is over now) on fighting video games. Suddenly, in ten years time, games go from cute little hedgehogs and plumbers to unstoppable killing machines and psychotic serial killers. Suddenly, they aren't games anymore; there is no entaertainment value to them. Now, according to politicans, they are "murder simulators". They are "death trainers". Rather than provide a means of stress release in a controlled, implication-free environment, they teach that the real world is just as the game world- without law, order, or punishment.
In this Digital Age when an artist can attract an audience no matter how controversial their work, censorship is not the problem. Blaming real world problems on entertainment media instead of accepting that the true nature of these problems lies with how children are raised is the REAL issue.
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3 comments:
Well said. However, even though scapegoating can push the blame unto anything that doesn't set our standards, I think it could work both ways with the blame towards censorship and scapegoating. You can't set fire to the house without fuel or a match. Scapegoating transitions into censorship and censorship leads to disatisfaction. I completely agree with your thesis on the ordeal however, in my own view, censorship PREVNTS media exposure or controversial matters from seeing the light of day. Scapegoating only puts the blame. Censorship is what puts the issue to rest.
My point is that scapegoating and politicans trying to further their career are the fuel and the match, respectively, where censoring is the fire itself- it destroys, at very least, the integrity of the media. If you blame something like metal for the problems of the nation, it is censored. The censorship keeps the lyrical content of bands like Megadeth and Slayer from reaching the ears of impressionable youth.
Blame leads to concern, concern leads to action, action leads to reaction, reaction leads back to blame, and all of this cycles until one side fires a decisive blow: censorship, or the "Dee Snider Wadded-Up Speech Surprise" method, in this case.
All agreed upon, scapegoating and censorship go hand and hand. However, I find an irony within this. I know how you say bands such as Slayer, Megadeth, or any death metal band, are censored from our youth; but image how it was like for parents in their younger years. Parents, in their younger years, have gone through a phase where something controversial in television, radio, literature, or music was censored or banned. It is an ongoing loop. But overall scapegoating and censorship live as one.
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