The History Of Censorship

Censorship, a concept discussed by the media, politicians, and even children with the kindling fire of a thousand suns. Where a simple bleep can mean the difference between the sanctity and purity of the mind. It is cruel. It is graceful. It is stuck in the grey of civil views. The costs are unforscene, and it’s influence unimaginable. A mistress in a black gown waiting to deceive us all. The history of censorship is rich with violence and treachery. To find the gold amongst the dust and the truth set in stone, we will have to dive head first into the black abyss of human ethics and morality. First let’s get some basics of censorship out of the way. Censorship “is the suppression of information, opinion, or expression of a government or
While this in some cases is true, a much better reason to remove censorship is that it makes the public vulnerable to what’s being censored. Take animated television shows such as South Park, American dad!, and Family Guy. These shows are in-your-face, loud, crude, and immensely rude, but they’re extremely popular. What does this have to do with pushing sensitivity? Everything! Watch one episode of South Park, for instance, and immediately you find yourself chin-deep in jew jokes, toilet humor, political jokes, and all-around offensive and obscene material. These jokes use comedy to “take the sting out of the statements” (The Artface). This works because of two reasons: the show is animated, and two since it’s beginning South Park has slowly ‘turned up the dial’ in terms of profanity. The animated cartoon style of the show allows it to get away with more, because the audience doesn’t take the jokes as personal. Simply because the characters seem like it’s outside of our world, the audience feels like they are more-or-less insulting something out of this world. Overtime this can have dramatic effects on the minds’ perceptions of profanity. Ultimately desensitizing that individual of what they think is offensive. This desensitizing allows the bar to be pushed even further over time. You can compare this to a person just joining a gym, but instead of loosening your sense of offense, that person is
Now let’s imagine the infamous helicopter parent scenario. A child is supported and protected at an unimaginable level since birth and is then thrown out into the real world. They are simply unprepared for the challenges the world will throw at them. Censorship is just like a helicopter parent. It protects and blinds it’s “children” from the true nature of the world until it is too late leaving the children feeling defeated and weak causing negative effects on how the child responds to these challenges. Nobody likes to feel vulnerable, out of control, so they protect themselves and younger generations with more censorship over time making the human race as a whole sensitive to who or what others think they are.They create a new world A world of “political correctness.” Eventually the mistakes will have been realized and those who stick to the ideas of political correctness will create the manifesto of “Whoever is declared the biggest victim gets to be the biggest bully,” (Rush Limbaugh) and “Truth is the new hate speech... During times of universal deceit telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.” (George Orwell) Do I think a toddler should be introduced to nudity? No, but there is a point in which the world goes too far. In creating a world of tolerance, they create a world of ultimate