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Save Your Own Children,
Leave Mine Alone
Why regulating movie marketing is censorship
by Jason Roth
The crucial question is: why do people believe in the existence of "good censorship"? Because, they believe, it's perfectly fine to sacrifice the rights of some people, as long as you do it for the sake of others. This is otherwise known as altruism, the non-virtue of committing human sacrifices for the benefit of others.
As philosopher Ayn Rand wrote:
"Altruism declares that any action taken for the benefit of others is good, and any action taken for one's own benefit is evil. Thus the beneficiary of an action is the only criterion of moral value - and so long as that beneficiary is anybody other than oneself, anything goes."
(The Virtue of Selfishness, Introduction, p. x)
According to altruists - the Tipper Gores, the Joseph Liebermans, and the Pope John Paul the Seconds of the world - any action is permitted as long as it's taken for the sake of others. To altruists, there is no such thing as an idea like "censorship is wrong". There is only the idea that "sometimes censorship is required, and sometimes it isn't."
The group of "others" whom we are currently using as the fashionable excuse to fuck over the rights of others is, of course, the children.
Let's remember one little detail about the children. The children have parents. Or more accurately, the parents have children. The parents have them, not you. If you have children, you have your children. Stay the hell out of other parents' business. And if you can't see the difference between actual child abuse and letting your kid watch Friday the 13th, then it's about time you took a vacation at Club Med Beijing and learn the difference. China protects its citizens against the mental kind of "child abuse" every day. If that's the kind of "protection" you believe in, then put your proof of citizenship where your mouth is.
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