One last point I would like to make regarding censorship is the fact that censorship as an idea just doesn't really work, at least not as it is intended to. I'll give an example:
Prohibition. Alcohol was banned in America around the 30's to stop people from drinking for a variety of reasons, namely moral reasons. Did it keep people from drinking? Hell no, it birthed a level of organized crime at a level the U.S. had never seen before, thus defeating the morality issue in the first place. At one point it was believed that there were MORE Speakeasy's than legal public drinking areas BEFORE Prohibition leading to evidence that MORE people drank during prohibition than before it.
(the same argument can be used against gun violence in the US, as our government leadership tries to make it harder for citizens to remain armed gun sales sky-rocket because people are afraid they wont always be able to buy a new gun. a school shooting mentioned the use of an AR-15 Hunting Rifle which tripled the price of the weapon because demand as so high for fear it would be banned from public markets, which in turn really funds the bad guys when buyers turn to "black markets" to buy their weapons instead. So again, when the government oversteps to police morality of the citizens its a natural instinct to do the opposite)
I know its kind of a bizarre example because it doesnt relate to the censorship topic at hand but if you look at what Thatcherism has done for "video-nasties" it does relate in a certain way. If you ask yourself "has my country's censorship laws stopped me from seeing content i want to see anyway?" The answer is probably No. By compiling a mostly arbitrary list of movies deemed inappropriate to citizens by the government it only made seeking out the material that much easier. Might as well make a BillBoard ad. Video Nasties earned levels of infamy and fame and created a sort of Bounty List for the curious-natured film fan. All they had to do is research the exact movie listed banned and import it from another country. As a general consensus I'd say its fair to say most horror movie collectors own a fairly large portion (maybe not all) of the video nasties before they branch off to personal tastes. Would The Burning be as popular as it is now if it wasnt banned, I dont think so, it would have been filed away as a cheap Jason knock off.
Bottom line is: by trying to keep "bad" movies out of the hands of the public they did the exact opposite, and more people sought them out. Censorship... really?
 |