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Friday, November 4, 2011


Here's an excerpt from the Lewis Shiner interview with Robert Anton Wilson: 

What's your opinion on pornography?

I agree with Magnus Magnusson. He's the host of an English quiz show called Mastermind, that's a very--not intellectual, but erudite quiz show. The contestants are all experts in some rare field of knowledge, like German history from 1872 to 1886, or Irish poetry of the 7th and 8th centuries--things like that. The winner is the person who can answer the most questions in one minute.

Anyway, Magnus Magnusson was on an Irish television show and somehow the subject of pornography came up and he said, "I'm absolutely against all censorship." And the host said, "That's on the usual Libertarian grounds?" And Magnusson said, "Of course. But I also like pornography." And I thought, my god, that's the first time I ever I heard that. Everybody else who defends it, they argue on these abstract things, the First Amendment or whatever--in England they quote John Stewart Mill. Magnusson was the first person honest enough to say, "I like it, you know." I like a lot of it. I'm not only against censorship, but I feel the damn people who want to ban it are interfering with my right to enjoy myself.

Here are some thoughts on the topic, some of them not unrelated, from Michael Johnson.


1 comment:

michael said...

Thanks for the shout-out, Jackson. At roughly the same time that you were composing this piece, I was working on something related:

http://overweeninggeneralist.blogspot.com/2011/11/speech-that-sends-chills-and-chilling.html.

If some mucky-muck at the Search Engine Behemoth cracks down on me, you'll be the first to know.

Thanks for your moral support!