Friedrick Nietzche once said: "There is no such thing as moral phenomena, only moral interpretation of phenomena." Many of the so-called pressing moral issues of today would show that Nietzche was largely right. For instance, record labeling, the quest against the NC-17 movie rating, the attempt to ban certain books, and arguably even the abortion issue, etc. would all be evidence in Nietzche's favor.
A national magazine once dubbed the 1990's "the Decency Decade". I dispute that claim. There are at least 220 million some-odd Americans, and I refuse to believe that most of them would tolerate, never mind advocate censorship; even in the name of subjective "decency" or phony political sentiment about so-called "family values". I have no idea how many moralists and morality groups there actually are, but I can guarantee that college students, for example; outnumber such Harper Valley Hypocrites by a vast margin. Keeping this fact in mind, there are many options available to counteract the subtle terrorism that self-appointed moralists and censors practice. (to be cont'd)
[The original version of this essay first appeared in Eastern Connecticut State University's Campus Lantern student newspaper in the early '90s and later appeared in my unpublished manuscript "In Mediocrity We Trust... In Debt We Die" And Other Essays.]
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