A common benefit to living in a country where we have individual freedoms andliberties is obviously the ability to have individual choice. We all know that choice ismore than simply being able to do as you please. There are (moral obligations and)laws that govern us as a society and restrict many of the choices that we wouldotherwise feel free to pursue. A downfall of freedoms and liberties is that they cansometimes be open to interpretation. Since so many of us comprehend differently,these liberties can be distorted and perverted to become a "means to justify" our ownends. There are many liberties that I feel are adequately governed. Meaning- I feel wehave the appropriate level of freedom and will use/use these certain liberties asintended. There are many that I disagree with and think that they should be restricted,if not just flat out illegal. In essence of time-I chose to focus on the censorship ofpornography.
English: Icon from Nuvola icon theme for KDE 3.x. ...
Food Pornography Poster
English: Caricature on "The great epidemic of porn...I support the censorship of pornography based upon three of the four libertylimiting principles found in our textbook on page 219.
1.The harm principle-the individual liberty is restricted to prevent harm toothers.
........................................................................................................
3. The principle of legal moralism-the individual liberty is limited to preventimmoral behavior.
4. The offense principle-the individual liberty is limited to prevent offense toothers.
In my opinion, child pornography is the epitome of the harm principle. It alsoencompasses the other two principles of legal moralism as well as the offenseprinciple. Violent pornography is an excellent example as well. I do not think in anyway that removing these two types of pornography will eliminate child abuse, rape, orviolent sexual behavior. Sweeping the problem under the rug will not eliminate thelarger issue. (That would be akin to saying that legalizing drugs would decrease thenumber of addicts in the country. I did not include...