When will we begin removing unacceptable books/movies from the past?

edit: Just read your last post. Just realised (Yes, I'm an idiot) Nice troll. lol

bluecode wrote:

Yes I completely agree, best idea of I've read in ages. We are haunted by the past. It's needs to be re-written to correspond to our future needs.

"Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past."
/edit




"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it"

I detest the very idea of banning books or movies or music or whatever medium. Just as much as I detest some of the ideas and images they represent. It is VERY important to remember these. You talk about Mark Twain? I'm assuming you are on about the slavery mentioned in the books. Never mind that he was an abolitionist. I remember reading Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer when I was young and loving them. Of course I knew about the term "n1gger" and, even at that age, knew how offensive it was but that this book was written when it was "acceptable". What I didn't know at that age was the derogatory use of the term "boy". When the series came out on TV in the early 80's I was surprised that Jim was a man. I thought they had made him older for some reason until my parents told me about the use of "boy". I found this just as shocking as the other terms. That they did not even consider him a man at all, let alone a human man.

The point is that these writings and movies and music are a window into the thoughts of the past (and present)"Birth of a Nation", "Triumph of the Will" are abhorrent pictures but can be seen as a snapshot of what many people were thinking at the time.

The Warner Bros cartoons of the 40's are incredibly racist. But they were designed from the very beginning to be so. They were created to bolster troop morale and to get people behind the war movement. These films cannot be taken out of context.

Plus, when you start where do you finish? If banning was to occur then, in my opinion, the first things to go on the fire should be the bible and the koran and ANY religious text. But THAT'S JUST MY OWN OPINION. I'm sure many many people would object to that opinion but my opinion should be just as valid as theirs so what happens? Does a board decide? Should the criteria be based on religious beliefs or secular? Should EVERYONE get a vote to decide or just "an educated few"

Banning is the height of arrogance. To assume that someone cannot read or watch or listen to something and understand/contemplate the messages behind them. And that these works should be removed lest it corrupt these pleb's tiny minds: "I can appreciate how bad these ideas are but they would see this and accept it, bless their cotton socks, the poor idiots"