Roger Kimball

Constant exposure to graphic sex and violence in the entertainment media brutalizes and desensitizes the viewer, argues Roger Kimball in the following viewpoint. Society was better off when the government censored sex and violence, as it did throughout most of American history. Kimball maintains that when graphic depictions of sex are forbidden, the audience’s imagination makes the story richer. Kimball is the managing editor of New Criterion and author of The Long March: How the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s Changed America.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. According to the author, why is the claim that parents should censor their children’s films false?
2. What is the one thing Sigmund Freud was right about, in Kimball’s opinion?
3. What two reason does Kimball give to support government censorship...