Sunday December 2, 2007

I've Been Thinking:

Iran wants to ban rap music.

Iran is calling rap music obscene.

Iran will be passing laws banning the distinctive music style that talks to a heavy rhythm and beat.

The interesting twist to this new cultural ban is that it is the music that is being banned - not the lyrics.

The genre has been nixed - not the prose or the poetry.
Banning the words maybe. But banning the sound?

Passing a law against a type of music can only happen in a theocratic dictatorship like Iran. It would never happen in a society that is actively engaged in and supportive of culture.

There are alternatives to an outright ban.
Banning a genre because it may encourage content that might be objectionable is beyond the pale of cultural critique.

Iran has got it topsy turvy.

Iran is killing the medium when what Iranian cultural police are really opposed to is the message.

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