Since Sunday evening, there has been much pandemonium over Janet Jackson’s right breast. I have seen more slow-motion replays of the entertainer’s bosom baring moment than footage from the game itself. In a letter to the FCC chairman, Michael Powell, the Family Research Council expressed the “conservative” organization’s “grave concern about the halftime show on CBS during the Super Bowl in which a performer bared her breast and other performers grabbed their private parts and some seemed to be performing sado-masochistic acts.” The young Powell, who happens to be the son of the Secretary of State, has vowed to investigate this “indecent” act which brought shock and awe to decent god-fearing families across America. Apparently, Powell himself was watching the game with his two young children, who of course have never been exposed to such filth. Maybe Mr. Powell’s children were blind-folded while being breast-fed by their mother so the unclean image of the mammary glands would not plant some kind of evil sexual seed in their feeble innocent juvenile minds.

 

It is of course ironic that Americans should find “indecency” in a bare breast while watching one of the most violent athletic events in the world. I wonder if Mr. Powell is aware that each year, on the day of this event, the number of domestic violence cases skyrocket across the country. Super Bowl is known in America as a holiday for “men.” Combine the violent nature of the game with machismo and a couple of cases of beer and it becomes clear why so many women across the land do not look forward to this celebration of masculinity.

 

The word “indecent,” like many other words, has taken on a new meaning under American Newspeak. VIOLENCE is not “indecent.” On the first day of Spring in 2002, people around the globe sat in front of their television sets and watched the “shock and awe” bombing campaign on Baghdad live on CNN. There were no complaints about “indecency” and “immorality,” for what people were witnessing was not an act of VIOLENCE, but a moral “pre-emptive” strike upon an enemy state designed to LIBERATE its people and bring FREEDOM and LIBERTY to the oppressed.

 

LIES are not “indecent.” Politicians pollute the television airwaves with fabricated stories about WMDs and other fictional nonsense designed to justify their own avarice and lust for power. But of course, they are not lying to us, they’ve just been given bad intelligence data. Ken Lays of the world steal billions and send their agents on television to concoct outlandish stories to bamboozle old couples who’ve lost their retirement and security. But Ken Lay and his like don’t steal. They’re just victims of unethical “accounting practices” by consulting firms. Mr. Powell himself recently tried to get rid of a few remaining restraints on media consolidation which have been in place for more than five decades. Talk about “indecent.”

 

Turn on the TV or check out a few box office hits and you’ll see that the most common feature in the moving image today is violence. Put some guns in a movie and perhaps a few explosions combined with a tough guy or two and you have a sure moneymaker. The U.S. army created and distributed, free of charge, a computer game known as “Army Ops,” known for being extremely violent and realistic. Apparently, this so called “game” was designed as a marketing tool to encourage young men and women to join the military in its fight against “terrorism.” No one cried “indecency,” for government sanctioned violence is PATRIOTIC, never indecent nor immoral.

 

Lies and violence are often painted over in the colors of the flag and made more digestible for the average person who doesn’t have the time nor the interest to ask questions. This is not only done in the U.S., although I may add that the skill has been crafted to perfection here. In my native country Iran, for example, everything beautiful, such as music, laughter, color or the exposed hair of a woman is certified to be “indecent,” while public hangings, flogging, torture and solitary confinement are measures taken to protect “national security” and decency.

 

I did not watch the Super Bowl this year. But I must admit that as soon as I heard about the “flashing,” I quickly turned on the television in the hope of catching a glimpse of it on some news program. I was not able to find an uncensored version on TV, so I turned to the Internet and was finally able to see what happened. I can’t see what was so “indecent” about the whole thing. As a matter of fact, I found it to be quite decent. There are many “indecent” things on television. An image of a bare breast or many bare breasts is not one of them.

 

 

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