Censorship In America

Censorship: Is It Necessary? A persuasive essay written by Mark Pierce Censorship is often used by governments to hide certain things from the public; things that are offensive. These can include (but are not limited to) being insulting to religion, being racist, or being too violent. Despite these reasons, however, censorship doesn’t need to be mandatory to protect the people.

Both examples of censorship help gain power over civilians and to greater daze them into a belief of a Utopia. With this act it gives no American citizen any information against the United States to talk about, so it creates the feel of a perfect

Censorship has been adopted in many societies as well as the governments of our world. As the history of the world expands we see many countries try to censor what their citizens see. When the countries do this they are not assisting the country, they are leading it into a self-destruction. A good example of this would be America in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. This nation is destroyed in a futuristic war that only lasts a couple of minutes, if not seconds. Other fitting examples include the Nazi regime and the Soviet Union, both governments censoring their population in what they could read, write, and see. As we know both of these governments did not succeed and ultimately were obliterated and the countries were punished. Government censorship not only wounds the ability for people to grow and expand in their thought process, but it eventually causes the ultimate self-destruction of the nation.

Censorship dates all the way back to 443 BC in ancient Rome with the Office of Censor. In that time this was an office of great repute, the Office of Censor was charged with the shaping of the character of the people. Thus it was considered to be an honorable task, since then the connotation of the word and such an office has changed greatly. Today censorship is the practice of officially examining books, movies, etc. and suppressing “unacceptable parts” based on whoever is defining “unacceptable.” Unacceptable has been considered to be a wide range of concepts from ideas to sexually explicit content. Historically in the USSR most leaders used censorship in every form as a means of suppressing whatever or whoever was perceived as a

Censorship has existed for as long as free thought has. The earliest instance of censorship recorded in history is marked by the death of the earliest and most famous philosopher, Socrates. As Geoff Kemp recounts in his book, Censorship Moments: readings Texts in the History of Censorship and Freedom, Socrates in the ancient Roman society was viewed as “a threat to the city and its young.” Cato, a politician and statesman in ancient Greece who led the charge against Socrates “sensed in Socratic philosophy, a threat to the traditional values of the city – one based on Socrates’ claim that wisdom lay in knowing that he did not know.” (Kemp) While Socrates encouraged his followers to question the laws and customs that they took for

Censorship takes many forms in our society today. First it takes the form of political correctness. The purpose

In Judy Blume’s article, “Censorship”, she depicts the definition of ‘Censorship’ in paragraph 8, and states what the word is in her own words. Censorship can branch off its roots onto different meanings; in time, humans will shift its meaning from how it use to define this, or that. In current day English, the term labels something from being viewed; the object, whether novel or movie, is blocked from one’s sight for countless reasons. Naturally, citizens wield ‘censor’ around like a white flag after a war they perceive is useless to strive for, and this definition follows suit. Censorship is agreeably required for certain scenarios of profanity and harshness that children should not experience.

“Research on the Censorship of ‘Brave New World”” Although being a subject of controversy for many decades, the novel Brave New World has survived the test of time and is even considered a classic. With that in mind, this novel is still continued to be challenged as it ranked number 7 in ALA’s “Frequently Challenged Books for the 21st Century” for 2011 (“Frequently Challenged Books for the 21st Century”). This list is composed of books that people don’t believe are suitable for the public to view. Another name for this, when the books are actually banned, is called censorship. However, should people actually be able to infringe on other people’s right to read books based on their narrow moral or religious views?

Censorship has been around for millions of years. Although censorship is still practised in some countries today, almost anyone would agree that censorship is never the right answer; as we have seen in the past, it has seldomly ever works out. Which is why it is so concerning that schools are starting to allow censorship in classrooms. As a result of this, the world is seeing an alarming amount of young millennials who are fresh into the workforce, expecting to always be catered to. More and more millennials are not being properly prepared for the real world due to censorship in schools; schools have been giving in and catering to students by allowing the censoring of books and microaggressions in the classroom, as a result the students are being taught that the world will cater to everyone, which is very inaccurate.

Censorship can be found all the way back to 443 BC, Rome. It was used in Greece, and a good government meant the people were shaped well. In order for the people to be well shaped they needed censorship, which is why it was such an important job. The first law for censorship did not become established until 300 AD in China (Newth). Frank states that many works of art have been changed and sometimes even erased because the content was not liked by people. The biggest reason why people do not like by people were for religious, social, or political reasons. Censorship was pushed artists’ freedom away by not letting them fully express their work. In 1565, Michelangelo's famous Sistine Chapel fresco was said to be unholy and wrong in the Catholic

Imagine a scenario where Kanye West is in his Los Angeles home with his wife and daughter and the police knock on his door. They arrest him based on exposing the American population to vulgarity, indecency, racist and sexist comments that offend many people. The government does not want America to be subjected to this type of music and turn the American culture into something more bigoted than it already is. However, a situation like this would never occur in the present day American society. That does not mean it could not happen in the future. Many American citizens are promoting censorship to an extreme that it could possibly become a reality. The American citizens claim that censorship is needed to shelter America’s citizens, but

Censorship is definitely a thing in a lot of parts of America; however, it’s not all bad censorship. For example, anti-abortion groups protest at public and private colleges using large, noticeable, graphic signs which most either ignore or attempt to take them down by force, which, although it sounds like illegal censorship, is legal because the 1st amendment does not protect provocative speech. In the video, a private college was shown which limited certain groups’ flyers and posters to one corner of the whole campus; they are completely within their rights to do that because they do not receive state funding so the first amendment does not apply to them. Finally, when Charlie Hebdo was attacked, a writer held a “Draw Muhammed” contest in Dallas which led to a shooting and her disappearance. Many people believe the things they do can not be censored because they are protected by the first amendment, but they are not because they are either provoking, the place they are at is not state funded, and people they are intentionally offending are not going to leave them alone.

When I first heard the word censorship, I did not know what to think really. Censorship to me was like R-rated movies, limitations in school and certain government rules. I knew that censorship had a negative meaning behind it and that its popularly practiced in other countries. When I looked more into censorship, I had no clue how much of our world actually provoked it as well. I began looking into the definition of censorship and a light bulb went off in my head! I realized that in high school, I learned about the censorship of journalism in America. With that and the help of our professors writing outline, I was able to begin the idea process of this essay. This essay allowed me to push my limits as a writer and make my writing even better!

Censorship may be protection from inappropriate materials, but it also limits free speech. For the limitation of free speech, it is reasonable why people are emphatically against censorship. It is understood that there is a need to filter some of the materials released in today’s society, but too much is being done by people who have no right meddling with everyone’s rights. Civilization has always been plagued by a never ending battle being fought over what is deemed right and wrong. In today’s culture, censorship oppresses everything in the media. From movies and music to television and even news stories, most of the content viewed today has been filtered one way or another. Restrictions have been in place since early societies have been

Perhaps one of the most well known cases of censorship in history involves Socrates. Sentenced to drink poison 399 BC, his corruption of youth and his participation in activities that were considered unorthodox considered him "unacceptable" by the government. However, Socrates was not the first to be punished for the immoral acts of his time. This first look at censorship has continuously been upheld by other countries such as China and the Soviet Union, and has evolved into the extensive censorship we have in the United States today ("The Long...").