Censorship (6.0)

Vivid nightmares become audacious reality everyday. Violence, drugs, and lies influence everything from film to music to the fine arts. Issues abound in our small world, some are abstract, others are so fundamentally concrete that we barely notice. People want their children safe from adult movies, and governments are fearful of being overthrown, and minorities wish to have everything be fit to their beliefs. What is the most virulent monstrosity of the times? Censorship, the restriction of information.

Ray Bradbury wrote a book entitled Fahrenheit 451; the book described in vivid detail a world so bleak and pessimistic, a world without books. The book's main character, Guy Montag, learned that through censorship's attempt to please every single, every little minority, and no majority, that books eventually became illegal. The result was a monotonous world without difference or liberty. Censorship attempts to come to the whim of every cry in the world, but in their want to be fair and equal, they take away our First Amendment right, which is to have a freedom of speech, and insist that the contents of certain adult industries aren't safe for children. Do you see the point I'm trying to make? It's not the industries that make children the way they are, it's the parents.

Many cultures and peoples love the idea of censorship, which is the restriction of information. They adore the idea of the government publishing the result of a terrorist attack but leaving out half of the investigation's results. Supposedly censorship keeps children safe. It could, of course; if you let your children go to the movies with someone you don't trust and say, "Okay honey, when a bad part comes up, remember to shut your eyes and ears," you're not going to do your child any good by doing that. The act of letting a child see something that the parent objects to, is the parent's fault only. The visage of censorship disguises the veracity of its true intent. Allen Ginsberg published a poem titled, "Howl" and it was hacked and slashed by publishers because they felt that the adult book was too explicit to children. I think that adult products shouldn't be edited so children can obtain the eighteen-years-or-older product. There is no logic or liberty in those such acts. Parents worry greatly about what their children are exposed to, but a cautious parent should constantly monitor their exposure to certain things.

Governments censor what information is released to the public. Little of what we see on the television, hear on the radio, or read in every newspaper hasn't been through government censorship. The Roswell incident in New Mexico in 1947, was a front-page story nationwide. But only about ten years after the event, a report entitled "Project Blue Book" was published, telling of Soviet space balloons falling on the American Southwest. From looking at the original documents, one can see whole sections marked out with black or blue ink. Obviously, the government of America censored certain information from reaching the public.

Many extremist societies feel the need to ban or even burn the Harry Potter series! Many claims have been put forth saying that the series supports paganism and witchcraft, and is considered offensive to them. Fascist Germany in the first half of the Twentieth Century held dozens of book-burnings. Many anti-Nazi Germans kept the forbidden books in cellars and basements in homes outside the country. Communist China has also banned certain books. Many Arab nations ban certain websites such as Myspace.com or YouTube.com. The United States government illegally tortured accused terrorists. When the story broke, it was clear: the government knew about it all along. Also, due to the attacks on September 11th, 2001, the government tapped into the phone calls of innocent civilians, without their consent!

In parting, censorship not only ruins our entertainments, it is wrong. It allows governments to carry out cruelties and injustices privately. It plays a large part in our society, public and private, in our lives. In the past, distant or recent, regimes, institutions, and nations have felt the need to censor public knowledge to feed their hideous lies. Insane ideas, preposterous proposals, and ludicrous lies are all causes of censorship. Censorship is the restriction of information, and it limits what a free people can say, sing, or write. In a land where people have the freedom of speech, in a world that strives for such a thing-among others like war, terror, and disease- that freedom is snatched away from under your tongue. Censorship is not the way to end the majority rule, it isn't the way to please minorities, it doesn't solve anything, it's just wrong.