Oh, MSPs do it again.... and I don't

Since we are all about freedom of speech this week (as opposed to condemning massacres of women by Boko Haram). I thought I'd have a look at some legislation in the Scottish Parliament.

You'll never guess what happened next...

1. A Borgesian Conundrum
In his short story The Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge, Borges describes an oriental taxonomy of animals which contradicts the western categorisation system. The groups that animals are divided into makes no sense compared to the usual scientific groupings (genus, species and all that jazz).

While I don't have a problem with an Argentinean magic realist making stuff up (or Foucault's subsequent use of the story to make a point about how the world is shaped by our cultural experience), I expect the legislation of the Scottish Parliament to have some relationship to accepted European taxonomies. 

The Air Weapons and Licensing (Scotland) Bill, however, has a vast range of interests. I would not usually place scrap metal dealers, owner of airguns, lap dancers and people who give alcohol to children in the same category. I have a vague idea that bills do include diverse subjects (and a vaguer idea that marginalised subjects slide in beneath populist measures), but voting on the control of guns and lap-dancing at the same time is like getting free shampoo with every purchase of paracetamol. 

The potential legislation is not consistent in its areas of concern.

2. Yes, but is it quality?
Pirsig's popular philosophical novel and disappointing technical manual, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, speculates that the master thinker can make a 'diamond cut' of an idea, cleaving it into two dialectic terms that can then be examined.

Jon Morgan, director of the Federation of Scottish Theatre, warned that the Scottish Government’s plan to increase restrictions on the opening of lap dancing clubs could unintentionally affect artistic expression elsewhere.
Morgan's chat with the MSPs makes a 'diamond cut' between lap dancing and artistic expression, which I don't think is a good one. Citing works like Sister, which uses autobiographical details from the life of a sex worker, Morgan worries that legislation aimed at curbing The Western Bar  and Hooters will discourage venues from presenting similar, provocative work.

Okay. This is complicated. The problem is that the 'making of meaning' is not determined exclusively by the artist. With, hopefully, no disrespect to the Cade sisters, who created Sister, it is difficult to assess why audiences came to their show. While there is clearly a feminist argument within the piece (ironically, it argues for the right of women to work in the sex industry), there could be a percentage of the audience who turn up to get cheapies.

The dividing line between 'sexual entertainment' and 'artistic importance' is not going to be decided by politicians. In fact, the two terms are not clearly distinct. That's why Morgan is worried, but by pleading special status for certain performances (he says burlesque, which has questionable artistic importance... ooohhh, I said it), it just muddies matters.