Evils of Censorship Important to Understand; Destruction of Free Speech is Top Priority of Police State.

The evils of censorship are a direct assault to the civil rights of the citizens of the United States of America as guaranteed by the United States Constitution.

Censorship is a way for the government of the United States to suppress people’s ability to freely express their ideas.

The suppression of the expression of free thought will lead to the actual repression of the thoughts themselves.

Censorship sends the wrong message to the public, it makes people feel that it does not make any sense for them to be creative, because their full ideas will not stand a chance of being fully released.

 There are many occurrences throughout society that show the extents of the evils of censorship.

While various entities encourage censorship in one sense or another, the final determination is always left with the government.

There are many reasons for censorship, but none of these reasons are grounds for the action, the determination of what should or should not be viewed, should be left to the individual doing the viewing, or for minors, should be left to the parents to determine.

 The use of censorship not only limits the expression of the person being censored, but also limits the free will of the person who chooses to view or not view the particular media being censored.

Definition of Censorship

According to The Merriam-Webster Dictionary, censorship is defined as:

the action of a censor especially in stopping the transmission or publication of matter considered objectionable.

This is a very broad but telling definition. Who is it that actually makes the determination as to objectionable material?

What is considered by one person to be objectionable may not be considered so by another person.

Shouldn’t each person have the right to determine if something is questionable to themselves?

Are the people in America so childlike that they need a parental figure to make these decisions for them?

Blatant Use of Censorship

In the mid-1980s, one of the most blatant incidents of the evils of censorship was during a concert being performed by 2 Live Crew.

These performers were arrested for laying on the stage and acting like they were having sex with the stage.

This shows the reaches of the use of censorship in that it was already extremely obvious what type of performing group this was before the concert.

This group made no showing of respectability and were not timid in their use of profanity, yet they were still allowed to give the concert, only to be arrested for obscenity.

More recently, the Harry Potter book series has been on the list to be censored.

In places, the ban has been successful, in whole towns and government run institutions such as schools and libraries.

Instead of banning a book due to the evilness of witchcraft, stop banning and the evils of censorship.

If each citizen speaks out on their desire to be able to choose for themselves what is objectionable, then the society as a whole might be heard.

Parents should speak up regarding the fact that they want to decide whether or not their child should be able to read certain books.

Society should bombard lawmakers with the desire for the current situation to change, and perhaps the citizens of the United States will be able to make decisions for themselves.