Borat

Regardless of Borat being a movie of bad taste, or even the fact that it has been filmed in a bizarre way (apparently, Borat lied to people he interviewed about what the material is going to be used for), banning it is like not allowing a man to speak his mind. People on the videos might sue and even win, and the courts might even decide to withdraw the movie from the market (even thought it’s a bit late for that). But to ban the movie altogether on the basis that it is bad, is to ban free speech. Image by Tostie14, some rights reserved.

If you thought that there is no censorship in today’s world, think again. Borat, the movie of really bad taste which I doubt you have not heard of, is being banned in countries such as Russia and the United Arab Emirates. Both the Russians and the Arabs hide under the culprit and say that they’ve banned it because it’s very offensive to some ethnic groups and other “blahblahs”.

Now, the movie of really bad taste, such as Borat, is generally not worth watching. But, as always, it is the choice of the individual whether or not to watch it. Russia and UAE have violated this principle. They declared that they will choose for the individuals that live in these countries. They declared they will not only censor the movie, but ban it altogether. First of all, what they are doing is wrong. Any censorship, no matter how stupid a thing being censored, is wrong. People have the right to free speech in any form – by speaking, by writing, by filming movies, etc. It is not a matter of what kind of culture resides in which area of the globe, it is a matter of life and death. Exchange of ideas, however poor in taste, is always a matter of life and death. What is really the difference between censoring a bad idea and censoring the best one, except that if you want to censor the best one, you have to keep it secret nowadays? None at all!

Insults towards ethnic groups and religions (Russia), or the movie being gross, vile and extremely ridiculous (UAE) is not reason enough to deny us free exchange of ideas – any ideas. Censoring and banning bad ideas (or movies for that matter) today, fuels the daring of various governments of the future to censor anything and everything on whatever basis they desire. Today the basis is insults and bad taste. Tomorrow it will be disregard for the current cultural norms, which might as well say that a man should not attempt to seek freedom for himself, or to explore the Solar System, or achieve any kind of scientific advancement. Make no mistake, the basis of such anti-conceptual philosophies is already being created, and not with pen and paper. Just take a look at the environmentalists who wish to stop all industry on the grounds that it is destroying the environment, while at the same time contradicting themselves that scientific advancement is necessary, but they do not see that industry generates exactly this kind of advancement; then there are the fighters for “animal rights” who literally destroy scientific advancement, particularly in the field of medicine, on the grounds of “cruelty towards animals”. Just as the grounds of Borat being insulting and of bad taste is not grounds enough to ban and censor it, the grounds of environmentalists and “animal rights” fighters are not grounds enough to stop human advancement.

The point is – just as Russia and UAE today are using beforementioned grounds to censor Borat, any country in nearer or farther future may use any established false grounds (such as that of environmentalists and “animal rights” fighters) to ban or censor anything else. Their success in banning something today gives them wind in the back for whatever bans they wish to impose in the future. Thus, all the fuss about lawsuits against Sacha Baron Cohen and his fictional Kazakh reporter Borat Sagdiyev, and about censorship, lies on grounds by far deeper and by far viler than simply “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan” being a movie of bad taste.