. . . think we can outlaw pornography. I do not have that in mind at all.
But take 6 to 7 hours daily -- the average listening time,
Senator, as I understand, by the youngsters of this particular porn rock and
rock music and everything else of that kind. Well, let us say rock music and
intersperse it with pornography. This is a matter of national concern, and it
is something that we have got to give some kind of attention to within the
constrictions of free speech.
So, I will be looking from the Sentator's standpoint, not just to
bring pressures to try to see if there is some constritutional provisions
to tax, but an approach that can be used by the Congress to limit this
outrageous filth, suggestive violence, suicide, and everything else in the
Lord's world that you would not think of. Certainly the writers and framers
of our first amendment never perhaps heard this music in their time, never
considered the broadcast airwaves and certainly that being piped into
people's homes willy nilly over the air. I will be listening closely.
I am sorry -- we also have another Defense Appropriations
markup -- that I must leave here shortly, but I will be in
and out. It is not because I am not interested. I am very interested in
trying our level best to limit and control as best we can, for the tender
young ears of America, the porn rock that will be presented here. I have
heard some of it, and I am sure you have.
The CHAIRMAN. Senator Trible.
OPENING STATEMENT BY SENATOR TRIBLE
Senator TRIBLE. Mr. Chairman, a brief statement if I may.
More than 2,300 years ago Plato recognized that music is a powerful force
in our lives, that music forms character and therefore plays an important
part in determining social and political issues. In Plato's words, "When
modes of music change, the fundamental laws of the state change with them."
Perhaps Daniel O'Connell, the 18th-century Irish nationalist, expressed it
best when he said, "Let me write the songs of a nation, and I care not who
makes its laws."
Our culture powerfully affects individual character. When we are constantly
confronted by that which is coarse, we become coarsened. Repeated exposure to
song lyrics describing rape, incest, sexual violence, and perversion is like
sandpaper to the soul. It rubs raw one's sensibilities, resulting in a state
of emotional numbness, in the words of George Will. One becomes literally
demoralized.
Now, the subject [effects?] of suggestive [such?] lyrics on a [well-adjusted?]
child may not be cataclysmic.
Rather, the emotional damage is more subtle. The effect on a troubled child,
however, can be disastrous, pushing that child over the emotional precipace
[sic], and to the extent that individual attitudes are influenced, this becomes
a very real social problem.
The linkage between experience, thought, and action necessarily leads to
concern about the consequences for society, and it demands a response from
each of us, not the self-appointed guardians of the national morality, as
someone suggested, but as concerned citizens and leaders of a great and
lasting republic.
To paraphrase John Donne, any man's death or harm diminishes me because I
am involved in mankind. Likewise, we are all . . .
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