Amazing how The Bible records those as the words of Christ and his action of defending a woman from being stoned to death. Yet, the words and actions apply to all passing of judgment. Whether that judgment is over a woman accused of adultery or (amusingly) Larry Flint.

If one were to read the research of Cialdini (Influence), it becomes even more apparant why banning is bad. A short analogy is that we want things more if they are denied to us. Any parent or child is likely to tell the same story on that, too!

With a bag full of cookies under an arm, a child will go through great lengths to build a ladder out of objects and climb to the top of the refrigerator for the cookies that were put “out of reach” on top of the refrigerator. We either did that as children or our own children have done it.

Humans take temptations. The more forbidden we make something, the more desirable it is for someone else to lay claim to it. I’m reminded of the quote from the movie Time Bandits, “Mom! Dad! Don’t touch it, it’s pure Evil!”

Everyone likes to forget temptation and it was put up front in the first book of The Bible — the story of Adam and Eve. Sometimes referred to as “The Original Sin” — the yielding to temptation.

I’m no Christian; but, even I know those Biblical stories.

As the colloquialism goes, “The grass is always greener on the other side.” Once again, the grass that is denied to us on the other side of the fence appears greener.

Culture and history also give us a wealth of examples to draw upon regarding banning and temptation. This is even written into the United States Constitution as Amendements 18 (The prohibition of alcohol) & 21 (The repeal of the 18th amendment).

The banning of books just makes them that much more desirable to read. Some books that have been banned due to content would never have survived the ages if they had been left alone due to how poorly written they were.

http://jramboz.wordpress.com/2009/09/29/on-the-virology-of-thought/

Thanks for another thought-provoking read (and another excuse to reread Milton)!

The quest begins.

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/MovieSpeeches/moviespeechtheamericanpresident.html