Triviality
Albert X. Perez
perez180ehs@hotmail.com

Special to The Libertarian Enterprise

Recently after writing elsewhere praising Vanessa Mae I looked up what CD's she had available on Amazon.com. One reviewer criticized her work claiming that her primary accomplishments were promoting the sales of miniskirts and making dirty old men happy. He said this as if they were bad things.

I think I have reasonable good taste in music, especially violin music, so that I can choose whose music I want to buy (Benchmark of general taste: think the version of Barbara Allen on Dolly Parton's Heartland CD is most gorgeous around, BA being my favorite English secular song). I have the right to purchase her stuff if I please and she has the right to sell it.

As long as I don't violate other people's rights in the process I have the right to enjoy being a dirty old man. Vanessa Mae and other women have the right to make me happy about being a dirty old man, though I request and strongly recommend that they do this in ways and times that do not provoke my wife's ire. Other people have the right to be dirty old men (and women) as long as they don't violate other people's rights in the process. They have the right to make others happy about being dirty old men (and women), with appropriate care not to anger spouses.

Men and women have the right to purchase, sell, and wear miniskirts and other clothing that makes them and/or makes them feel sexually attractive (I've seen guys in miniskirts) . Hopefully they will exercise good taste.

There are thought police out there that would choose to ban this or that artists' music and tell us what to like musically. They would tell us what, when, and where flirtation and intergender badinage is acceptable, even if (more like, especially when) these behaviors are exercised in a way that does not violate other people's rights. They would tell us what clothing to wear when on our leisure time (I concede the right of employers to impose dress codes on employees when they are on the clock but only because I am assuming workers can find more congenial working conditions elsewhere.).

Writers to TLE have concentrated on important issues like free speech, gun control, taxes, the Constitution, and so on. We have even made jokes at the expense of tyrants. Yay!

But you know what? Freedom in trivial things matters too. It's time to tell the wannabe bosses to fribble off and let us enjoy videos of pretty girls playing pretty versions of songs while wearing pretty clothes. It may not be uplifting, but sometimes we don't feel like being uplifted. We just want to see a cute person singing and playing a pretty song and let it make us happy.

And Ms. Grundy has no business telling us we can't because it's not politically correct. She might call us on our lack of taste (freedom of speech) but she can't dictate our tastes, thank Yahweh/Allah/Maeve/Dralm.

Amazon.com

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