Re: Obscenity in ancient texts and the ethics of uploading them

Richard Corfield wrote:

On 2008-05-20, Gareth McCaughan <Gareth.McCaughan@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
But #2 is a different matter altogether, and I think *that*
is what many people are disagreeing with Paul about. Paul
thinks (or at least suggests) that lots of activities that
many Christians regard as perfectly normal are commonly,
on balance, inappropriate for Christians because they're
liable to lead to mental pollution. Those who disagree
with him aren't (for the most part) saying "who cares
whether you pollute your mind?", they're saying (or at
least thinking, so far as I can tell) "I don't see that
the danger is great enough relative to the benefits".

You'd hope that our minds were suitably resistant to harm from reading
papers.

I would. But I have my doubts, though the harms I think most
likely probably aren't the same as the ones Paul does. (And
I'm inclined to think that the benefits outweigh the harms,
which Paul evidently isn't; but I'm going on handwavy intuition
here. As I think is Paul, but I'm willing to be corrected there.)

There may be slight shifts but nothing notable and I'd have
thought no tendency to 'sin'. I don't think reading about binge drinking
is going to make me more likely to do it. Of course the religions would
put us straight on cultivating the right mental attitudes.

I can't speak for Paul, but I'd *guess* he's not so much worried
that reading about binge drinking will make you want to do it
(though, go read up on the "Overton Window"...). Some more
plausible ways in which reading the newspapers could be bad
for you:

- The non-news bits often assume, and encourage, the ideas
that you are what you own; that happiness consists of having
the latest gadgets, the most attractive clothes, etc. And
that what determines what gadgets, clothes, etc., are good
to have is what the Cool People have today rather than what's
actually useful or comfortable or nice to look at.

- Only what is new is "news"; reading the papers may give you
the impression, e.g., that some relatively minor recent
development matters more than a long-term horror like
starvation in the Third World.

- Aside from the general requirement for things to be new,
coverage reflects the priorities of the editors, or perhaps
what they think are the priorities of the readers. If your
priorities are very different (e.g., if you think that virtue
matters more than wealth and damnation matters more than death)
then you might worry that regular reading that assumes other
priorities will push yours towards theirs.

- Newspaper articles reflect the values and beliefs of the people
who write them, at least to some extent. (For instance, in deciding
who to call a "terrorist", or what things to take a disapproving
tone about.) If your values and beliefs differ from theirs, then
again you may worry about having them gradually shifted as you read.

- Newspapers are full of advertisements. The purpose of
advertisements is to make you think you need or want things
that you wouldn't have wanted before you saw the ads; in
other words, advertisements aim to manipulate your beliefs
and preferences in a way that suits their makers' commercial
ends. That's unlikely to match what you want, or what's good.

The papers do have a mix of bad
and good news, but we do seem to see the bad from all over the world.

I think that's an important moral benefit that might come from
reading the newspapers. (We all tend to care disproportionately
more about those who are like us or near us, and that's bad.)

The religious edict (from the Gita but I'm sure Jesus said something
similar) "Most blessed is he who feels others' pain as his own" (or
something like that) would be quite hard if your contact with the world
was through the filtered view of the papers.

It may be better to have such filtered contact with (say) the people
of China or Burma, than no contact at all.

--
Gareth McCaughan
..sig under construc
.

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