POWER, said Henry Kissinger, is the ultimate aphrodisiac. If that is true, the ideal job for a sex maniac is presumably that of censor, combining as it does the daily stimulus of porn-on-tap with the excitement of exercising their prerogative in deciding what the rest of the country’s 37-million (or is it 42-million?) citizens will be allowed to see.
On the face of it, therefore, the stampede for the 36 jobs up for grabs on the re- constituted censor board points to an alarming manifestation of sexual mania in the country. But an alternative way of looking at it is to see the phenomenon as a worrying indication of a lack of computer literacy in the new South Africa: as we report in this edition there is little that the censors will be able to see that ordinary citizens with the benefit of computer and modem will not be able to enjoy in the comfort of their own homes.
The Internet was born and thrives out of chaos. And the death knell it seemingly sounds for the profession of the censor offers some comfort to those South Africans who might otherwise lament the apparent descent of their country into chaos. Obviously a terrible waste of money arises from the gradual disintegration of central government that we seem to be witnessing (epitomised, ironically, by the incompetence of the Department of Home Affairs, which was unable to provide us with details of the budget for the new censor board this week). But it is perhaps a small price to pay for the birth of a new society where citizens are finally allowed to rule themselves.
There are, of course, aspects of the debate about freedom of expression that trouble even the most level-headed liberals. Child abuse poses perhaps the most cogent challenge to the laissez-faire approach – finding expression in the blunt question: should the rape of a child be portrayed on the Internet?
The simplistic answer is that a child should not be raped and it is in respect of that crime, rather the reporting of it, that society should act. But it is an answer which sidesteps the issue of exploitation. Child porn is not put on the Net by peddlers of smut to expose the horrors of child abuse. It is there for titillation. But it is a titillation born of taboo. And it is taboo, Mr Kissinger, which is the ultimate aphrodisiac.