Censorship: To be or not to be

There are very few things in life that I am not confused about. For most
of the issues in the world, I can argue both sides of the issue equally
convincingly and more often than not, I don’t bother to choose a side.
One of the few exceptions to this rule used to be on Censorship. I have
always been against it, having believed that every human being has to
have the right to choose what he wants to see or hear.

But now I am beginning to rethink my stance. Mind you, I haven’t changed
my stance totally. That will take a long time given that I have been so
vocally against it all my life. I have been in Germany for over a month
now. There is so much public nudity everywhere. Ok, don’t take it the
wrong way. May be I am just not used to it. But every time I look at
newsstands, a few pairs of breasts are sure to stare back at me. Butt
naked bodies on national television channels on prime time are no
rarity. Ok, I am no prude. But, seriously do I really need to see so
many boobs and butts? Recently, viva, which based on my limited German
knowledge I think is Germany’s music channel, had an ass and tits
special. Which was basically a lot of music videos which focused on
nudity. Come on, someones gotta draw the line on videos like “Methods of
Mayhem, Get Naked”. For those of you who haven’t seen it, it features a
nude guy watching what looks like soft porn or a video with lots of
naked females (ok, a lot of it is digitally blanked out, but still..).
Even Amsterdam, which shows soft pornography on mainstream television
every midnight, did not strike me as having so much public nudity at
inappropriate times.

Mind you, I am not saying censorship is remotely good. Its just that
today my mind was opened to the possibility that maybe, perhaps, there
is a small teeny weeny amount of merit in reasonable amounts of
censorship. I definitely have nothing against such videos. I certainly
have nothing against nude pictures. But how about censoring it from kids
or teenagers? Or at least making it easier for parents to decide? Like
may be restricting offensive material to later hours in the night. Or to
certain channels? In newsstands, to restricting them to certain
sections, so that if I am just looking for a copy of today’s Herald, I
have a choice not to have too many nude beauties staring at me?

So guess what, may be I am not so decided on this censorship issue after
all. Come to think of it, I have lived most of my life in rather
conservative societies. So perhaps I need to “grow up” and see the world
more before I can take sides.