OFF: Gigs to be rated?

[Horse Whisperer]

>Most smaller venues already have an age limitation.  Granted that's
>because
>of the sale of hard liquor, but my point is, it's already here, and
>things
>are just fine.  Laws preventing minors from attending shows at these
>venues
>are and have been perfectly fine by me and just about everyone else,
>excepting the brats themselves.

The _brats_ complain because they wanna be adults and nobody let's them.
Deaths and injuries from alcohol occur about 300 times more commonly
than from drugs, and about 6 million times more than from loud and
allegedly offensive music.
Drink laws have a good commonsense grounding.  Age restrictions on what
you can see and hear?  Watch the news and see steaming corpses,
beatings, hear graphic descriptions of rape and murder.  Let's hear your
arguments for censoring that.  There are more 24 hour news channels than
there are 24 hour music stations, so why don't we look at them in the
same light?
Which can you see in legislating against music - commonsense or paranoia
& bigotry?


>
>Movie ratings are a product of a commercially voluntary organization
>of
>moviemakers (the MPAA), and if record labels and tour promoters want
>to do
>the same for concerts, more power to them.  It's merely the govt's
>involvement that irks me - but only a little.

Cinema is the most powerful medium.  Films take months and years to make
and have millions spent on them, as you know.  Directors have the finest
tools in the world at their command in order to make you think and feel
exactly how they want you to during a film.  They can show you what they
want.  They can create images impossible to realize in reality.
This is why they're rated.
And if you don't like the ratings - get the video instead.
If you don't want your children to see sex or severed heads, don't let
them see an 18 or X movie.
What the fuck can a concert do to offend you.  You go to a gig if you've
heard the music, so you know what you're gonna hear, and most of us can
read reviews in the music press, so we know if they do an Alice Cooper
hanging scene.



>
>Frankly, I want to know if what I'm about to see might offend me.
>
>Sorry once again to contribute to this off-topic stuff, but some
>people can
>be so selfish.  Is it really that big a deal to people?

Do you want someone to hold your hand and cover your eyes?  Do you want
someone else to guide you through life?  Do you want advice or do you
want all the answers for the day suppplied every morning through the
mail or on the TV?
Get a real life, make your own decisions and your own mistakes.  Because
I think I would like to be _free_ to make mine.

Do you remember the saying "It's the little things in life..."?
The point is that if you start giving up little bits of choice, that
freedom of choice continues to be eroded.  It's a slow process, but it
will happen if we keep capitulating.
"If you settle for nothing now, you'll settle for nothing later."

The government and the "God-fearing" pressure groups have no right to
tell anyone else how to live their lives or how to feel about things.
If you don't like something, avoid it - don't rob others of their choice
to discover their own likes or dislikes.

Chris.

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