Friday, October 20, 2006

Censorship and the Q-Tip

The library commission has recently come to a compromise with that frighteningly high number of unclean, belligerent rednecks who intensely oppose the leaving of books like prince and prince in plain site where little Jim Bob or Missy Sue can see it without some sort of supervision. We now put a little family sticker on all children's books of "questionable" content. I suppose this is better than the original proposition of keeping "those sorts" of books behind the counter, but my god. Arrggghh.

When did it become the library's responsibility to make sure your kids don't see anything so scandalous as two illustrated men embracing. For one thing, the library is not your god damned babysitter, despite what that vapid speaker at FOCUS thinks. If there is something that you do not want your child exposed to - be a parent. Do your job and keep an eye on your kids and what they are doing. Don't just unleash them on an unsuspecting library like the 10 plagues of the old testament. Second, there are far worse things that your boorish little hellions can just as easily get their nasty, sticky little paws on - like KKK literature, that you probably already have on your own bookshelf - or maybe one of those graphic pregnancy or anatomy books - or one of those books with crime scene photos of postmortem, slashed-up celebrities speckled all over its pages - or any history book that details in picture all the brutal atrocities that people have enacted upon each other since the beginning of time. Oh wait - all that is fine - because none of these deal with a subject that infringe on your comfort zones. Third, the library is kind of an enlightened place. It is meant to be a storehouse of knowledge of all kinds - not just the kinds you like - you dumb fucks. If I had it my way I would relieve the library of all the conservative propaganda that James Dobson or Pat robertson publish, or that tripe that Little John and the East Side Boys passes off as music - but I can't and in all probability wouldn't because I know that there are people who are not like me, who do count on the library to provide them with their desired items. So deal with it.

Sorry, this post just seemed to degenerate into a long-winded, profane and somewhat preachy assault on rednecks and conservatives, but it had to be said.

I have the same inclinations that everyone else has about censorship. I want stuff I don't like censored and stuff I do like unadulterated, but I have this pesky little thing called Mr. Brain. Now, Mr. Brain is resource center for all my cognitive faculties and he tells me that in order for the stuff that I like to not be censored, the stuff I do not like must be left equally unhampered, but there are just some days when I feel like it would be easier to do similarly as opponents do and poke Mr. Brain into submission with a cotton swab until he thinks that one kind of censorship is ok, while another would be ghastly. Dejected, I sign off.

3 comments:

craftyminx said...

hahaha I'm on the floor laughing soo hard that I can barely type. Mr. Brain hahaha. Ok so maybe this is only funny becuase Im drunk. But knowing how funny you are, I'm sure its not.

Emily Megan said...

I tend to agree with your last paragraph. I don't think that censorship is the answer, even if I wouldn't like young children to see everything in a library. When would it stop? Who determines the criteria for censorship?

I don't think that those in favor of censorship are completely off-base in their concerns - just that they fail to see the large picture. What might seem like such a great solution actually treads on the toes of traditional American values.

Adjective Queen said...

I couldn't agree more with this statement: "If there is something that you do not want your child exposed to -- be a parent!" Life would be so much easier for everyone if people parented their own kids, and didn't expect everyone else to do their job!
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