Condescension Inherent To Censorship Essay

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.

“Censorship reflects a society’s lack of confidence in itself.” This quote from Potter Stewart exemplifies how censorship is used to control society and the freedom of speech. When freedom of speech and expression are limited, everyone is very similar and there are no differences in society, which does not help society grow as a whole. No one has any contradicting ideas, which sounds like a good thing, but realistically is not. The expression of ideas and ideologies often forms groups in a society, and people look to these groups for comfort and social validation.

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 is the suppression of free speech, but we may at times need to use censorship for

Proponents of censorship seem to believe that they alone can determine what is and isn’t offensive to everyone. They believe that their own freedom of speech will remain intact when they have successfully silenced those that they oppose. They don’t seem to understand that once one group’s rights are taken away, we are all subject to loss of our constitutional right to speak and think freely.

Censorship on the news for example if someone was shot and the victim's face was blacked out and his voice was hanged so we could not recognize him that’s censorship.’’Anti groups have been getting books banned by governments because parents don’t like the violence and it talking about history because they want to hide the from their children and not only their children the whole school too’’.The School of Mississippi got the book to kill a mockingbird banned.’’Parents made that happen by complaining about the book and how they did not want any child to read the book kill a mockingbird’’. Censorship is unnecessary because hides the truth in what really happened in the actual events and how we can learn

The people that control what is censored are groups of people who find it either misleading or harmful and believe that others should not be exposed to it either, but this system seems unfair and biased against those who do not have an issue with the challenged work. American author Mark Twain once stated that “Censorship is telling a man that he can’t eat a steak just because a baby can’t chew it.” This quote is very true because the complaints one person has about a book or TV show should not stop people who want to view the content from being able to access it.

Censorship within the United States is not only an immoral and "big-brotherly" practice, but also an insult to each and every one of those who call themselves US citizens. Every day, censors attempt to sanitize TV, radio, music, print, and even the Internet. In their infinite wisdom, they deem what should and should not be viewed by John Q. Public. Censors succeed in suppressing our free spirits and restraining our thoughts in virtually every medium.

Some assert that censorship is not necessary because it violates the First Amendment of the Constitution which guarantees the right to free speech. In an article titled “Banned Books” it states, “According to the ALA President Carol Brey-Casiano, ‘Not every book is right for every person, but providing a wide range of reading choices is vital for learning, exploration, and imagination. The abilities to read, speak, think, and express ourselves freely are core American values.’” (Brunner 1). In this quote, the ALA President explains in her point of view why the use of censorship is unnecessary.

Overall governments, organizations, and those in power often times use censorship in order to shelter or hide things from people. For example, when a parent is just doing what is best for their kid and doesn’t just let them do whatever they want. There is always a reason, often times thought to be protection. However it could potentially be more, perhaps manipulation? Whatever may be the reason censorship will remain a vastly used form of restriction that some may just need to learn to

The subject of censorship is a very controversial one, especially the banning of books. Many people believe they must protect themselves and others from the "evils" of many classic books and works of art because they can be deemed "indecent" in one way or another. Many believe that this is absurd and censorship in its current form is a violation of our First Amendment right to free speech. Personally, I align myself with the latter, however I do feel there are occasions where censorship is justifiable.

The idea of censorship has been a part of society for a long time. In her book Censorship, Judy Monroe explores this topic. In her book, Monroe studied that censorship is dated back to 443 B.C. when the Roman government elected officials to check the moral and conduct of their citizens( Monroe 10). This means that censorship has been part of

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

Censorship, the concealment of words, pictures, or thoughts that are "hostile," happens at whatever point, when people succeed in forcing their own political or good values on others. Censorship can be done by the legislature and private group of people. Censorship by the government is unlawful. There are numerous strict rules and laws regarding censorship in the American constitution. For instance, the government can take a stand on anyone who is opposing on federal funding or anything related to federal office. In addition to these, the government can take serious steps with respect to censorship is concerned, the most noticeable for them is entertainment and web, in which the government decides the age limit for the contents accessible on the web." West 's Encyclopedia of American Law). From the above comprehension, we will discuss negative and positive parts of censorship and answer the question, is government restriction advocated?. The definition and all the data in