Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: vannrox
The vulgarity, profanity and violence you see in entertainment are there only because those individuals occupying the positions of power in the entertainment industry said "Yes." If they said "No," those things would disappear from the screens and the magazine racks.

Hmm..... I was under the impression that free market capitalism and the First Amendment dictated what we see on movie screens and magazine racks. I'm not sure I want gov't involved in that.
14 posted on 06/11/2002 4:55:08 PM PDT by moderation_is_not_a_bad_thing
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies ]


To: moderation_is_not_a_bad_thing
Hmm..... I was under the impression that free market capitalism and the First Amendment dictated what we see on movie screens and magazine racks. I'm not sure I want gov't involved in that.

As usual with market-oriented conservatives and libertarians, you miss the point entirely. "The free market" has never existed in pure form except at the very lowest level. The more complicated the economy (or the polity), the more elites have the ability to guide it by making decisions about what does and what does not appear in the market (or in public debate) before the individual consumer is given a chance to "choose" (or the individual voter is given a chance to vote).

Thus one has the illusion of choice, in a situation where, in fact, choice is pre-constrained by elites into a narrow spectrum of "acceptable public limits". More often then not, elites can allow or prohibit most material they want allowed or prohibited, without having to pass any laws to do so. Hidden rule is often more effective then open rule because it offers the illusion of freedom, but only delivering a narrow parameter which the ruling elites have decided is acceptable to them.

Blinded by ideology and "free market" ideals, it is no wonder so many conservatives and libertarians are bad at politics, and completely unaware of the existence of metapolitics. They don't seem to realize that all of the really important political questions are decided in private, months or years, sometimes decades, before they or the general public are even aware that such political questions even exist!

22 posted on 06/11/2002 6:28:32 PM PDT by Vast Buffalo Wing Conspiracy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson