SPOILER WARNING: Grey’s Anatomy Season 4 and House Season 5
See? That’s a spoiler warning. To me, it’s simple courtesy to include spoiler warnings in blog posts. Which means that the lack of spoiler warnings is simply rude.
Can’t see why some people find it so hard to get that spoilers suck. A film is made a certain way such that the audience finds out about the plot in a certain manner, which will shape said audience’s experience.
When I am spoiled, a great part of the pleasure of watching a film or reading a book is lost. It is an integral part of the experience, for me, and for many people as well. I am not the only one in this world who hate spoilers, and people who don’t mind spoilers should just get this: There are people who take spoilers very seriously, as they can seriously spoil what would otherwise be a pleasurable experience.
But okay, that’s just a short rant. Don’t really mean to talk about spoilers, just that I really really hate them and am annoyed when people don’t take spoilers seriously.
Anyway, my life has been about more relaxing, and I watched more House online as well as finished Grey’s 4 in a through-the-night marathon whereby I watched TV and guzzled coke (the drink, not the white stuff).
And I just discovered more pleasures of watching pirated stuff.
Once again, here’s a spoiler warning.
One of the great pleasures of watching pirated stuff is that you do not have to undergo the censorship of the Singapore government.
Seriously, put that on the list. How can one have an authentic film viewing experience when the State is busy nannying what you may or may not watch.
I mean, I’m a defender of Singapore’s system quite often, but I think such censorship is just plain stupid. Like seriously.
For instance, I wonder how the MDA’s going to deal with that episode with two gay soldiers in Grey’s 4. The kissing scene would most probably be cut out, though what about the whole “portraying homosexual lifestyle in a positive light” thing.
Even though it wasn’t really positive thing, since their story was supposed to be tragic, as the funny therapist in the show said.
And there’s that lesbian relationship developing in Grey’s, which is rather weird but I’m still okay with it. Haha, I guess. The thing about marathons is that they dull the sense abit so I’m still absorbing the revelation.
More importantly, if I weren’t watching House online, I would totally have missed the hot steamy lesbian sex Thirteen and the random girl were having. Which would have totally KILLED the plot for the episode, maybe even damaged the whole Thirteen spiralling into a degenerate lifestyle thing that has been going on throughout the season.
So my question is: what is MDA to do?
Seriously, they can’t afford to not allow Grey’s or House be shown on the air, can they? They’d lose political support at the drop of a hat, since they are such popular shows (I think).
Yet if they censor, they’d be destroying the show and fans will complain as well.
Which really, brings me to yet another point.
I generally like things lawful and orderly, but sometimes I see a good side to piracy.
Here, I’m the talking about the fact that piracy liberates us from draconian censorship laws.
The really anal part of me likes things to be orderly, everyone to obey the law, follow the rules, and these rules should be clear, properly enforced.
But the inner anarchist in me thinks that if the rules are stupid, they should be trashed, broken, torn apart, and disobeyed.
In such cases, piracy, blackmarkets, alternative power structures to the State, can actually promote freedom.
For instance, just imagine the huge blackmarket that would emerge if the government tried to ban the consumption of meat. I for one, would heartily partake in such a market as a consumer.
Or just look at Prohibtion in the USA, another huge blackmarket.
So things are never really as the propaganda videos say they are.
Piracy and the blackmarket for them, can sometimes liberate us from annoying bureaucrats who try to limit other people’s freedom.
October 25, 2009 at 10:40 pm |
you’d partake in the consumption of black market meat?…
do you realise how dangerous this would probably be?
look at all the dangerous extra substances in drugs – present because the industry is illegal and therefore unregulated.
the methods used to breed and slaughter black market meat would also not be regulated which could lead to some serious acts of animal cruelty.
as well as the health risks clearly involved, would you really want an animals slow and painful death on your hands?…
October 27, 2009 at 12:11 am |
Lol no idea who you are but yes, I would buy illegal meat if that’s what it would take to get to consume meat, given that the health risks are acceptable, (which is really an empirical question not to be discussed in a thought experiment, even though I absolutely agree that the health risks involved in such meat would be higher). Similarly, I would buy black market food if I were living in Maoist China and it were the only way to survive.
And I certainly hope that the government is not adding to my cost in consuming meat by imposing regulations that has nothing to do with my welfare and is only meant to prevent animal cruelty. Seriously, I don’t care about said animals.
Finally, you seem to misunderstand why black markets are dangerous. You seem to think that black markets are dangerous because they are unregulated by the government. What I say is more important is that black markets are dangerous because they are not subject to true free market forces.