What's up with the British lately? Take a look at this post from IMDB--
Does it work?
No, the stabbings, shootings, beatings, rapes, and murders will continue unabated in the streets of Britain.
Then why do they do it?
Because they have to feel that they're doing something, and actually directly tackling the issues of soul crushing, dehumanizing state-sponsored poverty, drugs, alcohol, poor education, dreadful housing, and most importantly; family dysfunction that are at the roots of street level violence is way to hard. And top it all off with the fact that fixing these root causes would require challenging their own deeply held socio-political shibboleths you can see why they go after movies and television.
It's just easier.
It's not the first time, Britain actually has a history of this sort of thing.
In 1928 a Brit claimed that the movie London After Midnight, and the appearance of its star, Lon Chaney, had unhinged his mind and compelled him to kill his girlfriend in Hyde Park.
The defence didn't work, and he went down, but the film was censored in Britain anyway, just in case.
And it's not just violence that's drawn the ire of the "censorship for prevention" lobby, are also going after smoking, using a cell phone and/or not wearing seat-belts while driving. Even the usually calm, and collected comedian Stephen Fry is getting driven around the bend by this phenomenon and talks about it in his latest audio blog: Compliance Defiance.
Conservatives and libertarians call this phenomenon "the nanny state" where people try to get the government to control every facet of human behaviour from cradle to grave in the vain hope that it will create some sort of happy utopia where unicorns prance in green fields, beneath rainbows, and Alyson Hannigan... you know where I'm going with this...
Anyway, the foundation of this belief is that there either no such thing as free will, or that free will is something to be crushed, because the ability to make choices, can lead to wrong choices.
And that's what drives people nuts about this issue.
They don't want to admit that some people are, for lack of a better word, assholes who are prone to crime, violence, and misbehaviour, because they enjoy the thrill they get from being assholes.
There have always been assholes though-out human history, and, sadly, there will always be assholes in our future. Some, I think, are born that way, others are made, but either way, they make the conscious choice to stay assholes when the alternatives present themselves, because they want to be assholes.
But you can't really use that as a "scientific" excuse, because folks want their happy ending, where there's an easy solution that can fit snugly into the 90 minute running time of a TV movie. They want a magic button they can push to make the whole thing go away, and they think that button will be censorship.
And the ironic thing, is that it's just an adjusted and politically correct version of the old Hayes Production Code, which most of them would deride as tyrannical. Yet when they try to explain how their codes are different, and therefore somehow better, they come up with the same bland platitudes of saving humanity from itself.
Of course, I think they are just talking out of their ass.
What do you think?
Protest Over Bond Trailer*Once again the country formerly known as Great Britain has begun to dance on the slippery slope of censorship. This time the dance is done to the tune of "preventing" the gun and knife violence that is currently spilling blood on streets all over Britain.4 September 2008 5:02 AM, PDT
Clips from the trailer of the new James Bond movie Quantum Of Solace have been criticised for allegedly glamorising gun crime.
Anti-gun campaigners in the U.K. have complained about images taken from the forthcoming 007 film, which show its star, Daniel Craig, holding a large machine gun.
The protestors insist the commercial should not be broadcast following a recent spate of armed crime across Britain.
Lyn Costello, spokeswoman for Mothers Against Murder and Aggression, says, "Kids are killing each other - they are shooting and stabbing each other and everyone has to take responsibility for stopping this."
Posters advertising Angelina Jolie's latest film Wanted - which feature the beauty grasping a gun - were banned in Britain earlier this week for allegedly promoting violence.
Does it work?
No, the stabbings, shootings, beatings, rapes, and murders will continue unabated in the streets of Britain.
Then why do they do it?
Because they have to feel that they're doing something, and actually directly tackling the issues of soul crushing, dehumanizing state-sponsored poverty, drugs, alcohol, poor education, dreadful housing, and most importantly; family dysfunction that are at the roots of street level violence is way to hard. And top it all off with the fact that fixing these root causes would require challenging their own deeply held socio-political shibboleths you can see why they go after movies and television.
It's just easier.
It's not the first time, Britain actually has a history of this sort of thing.
In 1928 a Brit claimed that the movie London After Midnight, and the appearance of its star, Lon Chaney, had unhinged his mind and compelled him to kill his girlfriend in Hyde Park.
The defence didn't work, and he went down, but the film was censored in Britain anyway, just in case.
And it's not just violence that's drawn the ire of the "censorship for prevention" lobby, are also going after smoking, using a cell phone and/or not wearing seat-belts while driving. Even the usually calm, and collected comedian Stephen Fry is getting driven around the bend by this phenomenon and talks about it in his latest audio blog: Compliance Defiance.
Conservatives and libertarians call this phenomenon "the nanny state" where people try to get the government to control every facet of human behaviour from cradle to grave in the vain hope that it will create some sort of happy utopia where unicorns prance in green fields, beneath rainbows, and Alyson Hannigan... you know where I'm going with this...
Anyway, the foundation of this belief is that there either no such thing as free will, or that free will is something to be crushed, because the ability to make choices, can lead to wrong choices.
And that's what drives people nuts about this issue.They don't want to admit that some people are, for lack of a better word, assholes who are prone to crime, violence, and misbehaviour, because they enjoy the thrill they get from being assholes.
There have always been assholes though-out human history, and, sadly, there will always be assholes in our future. Some, I think, are born that way, others are made, but either way, they make the conscious choice to stay assholes when the alternatives present themselves, because they want to be assholes.
But you can't really use that as a "scientific" excuse, because folks want their happy ending, where there's an easy solution that can fit snugly into the 90 minute running time of a TV movie. They want a magic button they can push to make the whole thing go away, and they think that button will be censorship.
And the ironic thing, is that it's just an adjusted and politically correct version of the old Hayes Production Code, which most of them would deride as tyrannical. Yet when they try to explain how their codes are different, and therefore somehow better, they come up with the same bland platitudes of saving humanity from itself.
Of course, I think they are just talking out of their ass.
What do you think?
Bad publicity is still publicity. I will not see QUANTUM.
ReplyDeletePoor Britain. There are now about as many native Brits leaving the country as 3rd world immigrants coming in.
ReplyDeleteAbout the only media which shows the country in a positive light is the 007 series. So of course, it has to be attacked. :[
The govt and media struggle here to keep the lid on...i live part of year in California and I find random mindless violence a veritable omnipresent plague in england....the media tells us otherwise and demonises America....result...screwed.
ReplyDelete