Page 3509 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 22 October 2014
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Censorship does not meet with much enthusiasm these days. We tend to think of it as a small minded defensive interference with a cherished freedom to express ourselves. We associate it with book burning, political repression and ignorant intolerance.
So that is the slur the minister throws because she does not have a case. But de Botton, in his role as a commentator on modern society, has written books called The Consolations of Philosophy, How Proust Can Change Your Life, Status Anxiety and Religion for Atheists, and now he has written this book called Art as Therapy. He goes on to say:
However, it is time to recognize that, in most countries, this phase has definitely passed.
That is, the book burners. He continues:
We should revisit the idea of censorship, and potentially consider it not as unenlightened suppression of critical ideas, but as a sincere attempt to organize the world for our benefit. The threat now is not that wonderful truths will be repressed by malign authorities, but rather that we will drown in chaos, overwhelmed by the irrelevant and unhelpful trivia, unable to concentrate on what is genuinely important.
Unable to concentrate on what is genuinely important and, indeed, fund what is genuinely important.
MADAM DEPUTY SPEAKER: Stop the clock. Mr Smyth, resume your seat for one moment. I remind you that the statement about book burning was withdrawn by the member.
MR SMYTH: No, that is okay.
MADAM DEPUTY SPEAKER: I am just reminding you.
MR SMYTH: Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, and I am not accusing anybody in this place of being a book burner.
It is interesting about what we ascribe to, and, indeed, what we fund. It is interesting that the leader of one of the local arts communities entered the fray in this on the Twitter space. What did he say about this issue? What he said was—and Ms Burch got the same tweet:
A tolerance of satire, even puerile attention seeking titles, the sign of a healthy robust democracy.
That may be true but it does not mean you have to fund it. We all heard at the estimates committee—particularly you and I, Madam Deputy Speaker, because we were there for all of it—groups like the Childers Group say that the dollar is really tight; in fact the dollars have been reduced by this government. So why is it that we are funding puerile, attention-seeking titles instead of seeking to ensure that we strive to be the best?
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