You Beleive in Censorship Too

Hello.

Censorship is a really interesting issue, because the more I read about it and the more that I learn about how it effects our lives, the more I think that we do really need some form of censorship. I know, you are permitted to gasp, but let me ask you this, and this is a direct quote from Jonah Goldberg, “Do you think that ABC should be allowed to run triple-X porn on Saturday morning?”

No? I thought not. Well, and this is also Jonah Goldberg’s point, then you believe in censorship as well. If you believe that you shouldn’t be able to distribute the work of someone else, their book, their music, their characters, then you also believe in copyright laws, which is a form of censorship.

Now, the part that gets tricky is hate speech. Do you believe that members of the Ku Klux Klan should be aloud to spout white supremacy speeches? I personally don’t think so, but if you limit them, you are really starting to put a lid on what people can and cannot say. You are really cutting down on the American idea of everybody can say whatever they want.

The last point I would like to make, and borrow again from Goldberg, is that in modern times, censorship has become something that we gasp at. We think, “Censorship? No!” Even the word “censorship” has come to mean “the bad kind of censorship in which the government takes away all of our rights.” But perhaps, it’s not really such a bad thing.

The second article, if I am to continue my pervious opinion, is actually rather naïve-sounding. They say that hate speech should be aloud and even the Ku Klux Klan members and the Hitlers of the world should be give the right to say whatever they want, whenever they want. Of course, they make no mention of the good kind of censorship and rather deem it all as “bad”.

I would like to draw a parallel. America is a free country in which we are aloud to do whatever we want. However, there are laws to keep us safe, so we are not entirely free. But, would you have the government get rid of the law that says that it’s illegal to kill another human? Would you have them get rid of the law that says that you can’t steal things? No, I don’t think so. Censorship is the same way. We ARE a free country and you can say almost anything you want, but we have to have the censorship laws, and if you thought about it, you would see that there are forms of censorship that everyone believes in.

The article advocating free speech makes some very good points. We have come a long way from jailing people for handing out anti-war leaflets, in fact, we have the right to protest and use it frequently. I believe in that right. I believe that we need to be able to express our dissent, what I don’t believe is that it is so black and white. More a shade of grey, I would say.

This second viewpoint also says “freedom of expression…is…‘the indispensable condition of nearly every other form of freedom.’” And I have to agree. Without this, our society, a democracy, would crumble, but there are some cases in which censorship is a pillar of our society, one of the things that is keeping us afloat. Pull out this building block and we will truly crumble into anarchy.

Goodbye.