...And other Fear Factors...

Yes, I know, brother deleted the last post, so I WAS going to repost it, but I got an interesting response to one of MY journals, so I have a comment of my own.

Fear is an interesting thing. It can help a person survive, or it can make them tools. It depends on the person. It can make them run from a viable attack, or cause them to attack what isn't so viable. For example, in a person can attack another person for their views or life style, even going so far as to have cause controversy and strife for others. Reasonable, intellegent adults can generally see through these sorts of shenanigans and ignore them (after all, if a reasonable adult sees something they don't like, they can use the back button and seek more agreeable pastures). Frightened children go crying until they cause what frightens them to go away--even if it was just the shadow of the sweater they were going to need later for that chilly morning. A parent can either respond reasonably, by showing the child what they REALLY fear, or allow the child to drive them nuts, give in to the whining, and throw the sweater away.

Like my analogy? I was going to use one about visual razor tape (in regards to something *I* wrote, without cuss words, denegration of character or put downs), but if the 1st letter I wrote to the mods was considered rough to certain people, what I planned putting up here would have made their brains bleed.

At any rate, I will say right now I applaud the mods here. They have a lot to deal with and other art(ist)s to protect. A site this size has about as many issues to deal with. I applaud a lot of the people here who deal with certain issues with tact and intellegence.

Everyone has a right to their opinion: that's basically what art is ABOUT--a person's opinion about life around them. It gives us a chance to see life through the eyes of another, to see through THEIR dreams, and to dream ourselves--in DIFFERENT WAYS. The problem comes when an individual wants people to see things only THEIR way, and one tool of doing that is to remove another person's view of life. This is a good tool to use when you have children whose idea of the world is up to their parents to provide. That's what a parent DOES. They monitor their kids. For example, I take mine though Dev Art, and when I have to cook dinner, Nanny block goes UP, and there we go. But when someone has decided for ME, the ADULT, that I don't need to see something THEY don't like, and have it BANNED, well then, this is a BAD thing. I, and many others do NOT need someone to tell us what is good or bad. WE have the power to decide that. I can decide if I don't like seeing a woman tied up, a robot tied up, or a politican's tongue tied up. I and many others can do it with ONE FINGER, and a back button. We DON'T need someone else' finger, dogma, angst or fear to do it for us. It smacks too much of control and giving an inch, and most of us know that once THAT happens, women are wearing sacks and men thrown in prison without due process and free speech becomes a death sentence. Okay, so a little visual razoring--can't help myself...