Couldn’t resist the thursday thumb twiddler today…
1. Granville Hicks said that a censor was “a man who knows more things than he thinks you ought to.” Are there times when government censorship is necessary, beyond, perhaps, “top secret” spy stuff? Why do so many folks want to censor stuff?
There should be official boards to set age limits for movies and such, definitely, but other than that I hate censorship with a passion. Waterstones ran a wonderful series of ads for books a few years ago where one of the captions was “Nothing can be more offensive in a book than censorship” and I agree wholeheartedly. If you don’t like it shut the book/turn off the television/walk out of the theatre. The reason so many people want to censor stuff is either that they haven’t realised that there is such a thing as an “off” button on their TV or that they have problems accepting that other people think differently. Neither of which is very sympathetic, and neither of which should be encouraged by giving in.
2. Ashleigh Brilliant said, “If you can’t learn to do it well, learn to enjoy doing it badly.” What do you do badly that you nonetheless enjoy doing?
I like singing at the top of my voice. I normally only do this when I’m home alone, but sometimes I decide I don’t care what it sounds like and sing in company too.
3. Robert Heinlein’s Lazarus Long suggested, “Don’t ever become a pessimist; a pessimist is correct oftener than an optimist, but an optimist has more fun — and neither can stop the march of events.” Would you consider yourself a pessimist or an optimist? And does that ever bother you or cause you problems?
I’m an optimist. The (mostly) rational part of my brain worries, but the overall conclusion is always that “it’ll be allright”. It certainly doesn’t bother me, I agree that optimists have more fun. It doesn’t normally cause any major problems either, apart from suddenly realising at the end of the month that I have optimistically left a bill or two a bit late and now I really don’t have any money to pay them with.