Censorship Essay Example For Students

Censorship Essay Of Peter NoyesErin Lowe- also author of many outstanding American Historyessays. of which two are published somewhere here.. one about Peter Noyes,and another about Mercantilism.. Books wont stay banned. They wontburn. Ideas wont go to jail In the long run of history, the censor and theinquisitor have always lost. The only sure weapon against bad ideas is betterideas. The source of better ideas is wisdom. The surest path to wisdom is aliberal education. The only way that the ideas of this world that aredeemed bad are going to go away is if we are allowed to see them and changethem. If we are not allowed to see what is bad then our society willnever grow to become a better place. What censorship does is keep us protected;leaving us living sheltered lives. If we never see a racist comment how are weto know that racism is bad? At the same time Censorship can be a good thingbecause it keeps children from seeing pornography, and terrible acts ofviolence. However censorship should not keep anyone from seeing literature, evenif it is considered slightly explicit in a sexual, racial, or violent manner. Censorship should leave the ideas of people alone and leave them with theirfirst amendment rights. Amendment one of the United States Bill of Rights readsCongress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, orprohibiting the free exercise there of; or abridging the freedom of speech, orof the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble. Whatthis means is that we, in America have the right to be any religion, and to nothave that religion forced upon us. We have the right to say what we want and topublish our ideas if we so wish, and to read the ideas that others havepublished. We can also peaceably assemble, or gather in protest without violencewhat we think is wrong. The biggest right that we have is that of free speechand press. We can say what we want! As American sometimes we take this forgranted. However even though we have the right to free speech we have to drawthe line somewhere, but where? We so often condemn books that were writtento fight the very things that we claim to be fighting. This quoteillustrates one of the things that are so wrong with censorship. We seem to banor censor books, like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, that are actuallyagainst racism or whatever the objection to the book is. When a book is takenthe wrong way it is simply the fault of the reader, and not the book. The booktherefore cannot be censored in this case. To override the right of free speechon the grounds that the speech in question is likely to harm or offend others isto commit an act of censorship. Not all censorship of this manner is unjustifiedhowever, for some speech causes significant and direct harm to others, such asmaliciously defaming speech, and speech which opens national secrets toenemies. There should be however a presumption that all speech isprotected from censorship in that the censor always has to prove and to persuadethe people that the speech is bad. In this way it is using new and better ideasto eliminate the bad ideas. The speaker should not have to prove every time thatan individual challenges his/her speech that it really is good. The proof has tobe that whatever harm or offense the speech has caused is significant, anddirect. Free speech is a valuable thing, and should not be restricted by itsremote or superficially adverse affect on others. Without free speech nosearch for truth is possible no discovery of truth is useful Better athousandfold abuse of free speech that denial of free speech. The abuse dies ina day, but the denial slays the life f the people, and entombs the hope of therace This quote had an excellent point in the case against censorship. Todiscover new ideas and the truth of life we need to be exposed to new thoughts,and different thoughts. If we always saw the same thoughts over and over wecould never expand; we could never become better as a society without new ideas. If new ideas cannot be written or seen then their discovery is useless, for theycannot help without being seen. SO it is better that we see cases in which freespeech is used in a bad way, such as in defaming specific people or groups orideas, than to have no free speech at all as a result of free censorship. Defaming something that should not be defamed can be recovered from, for goodthings will be supported more than gone against. Also, things that need to beobliterated from society will be by this right of free speech. The denial offree speech will smother the life of a society. A society where different ideasarent all owed will soon fail. However there is no right to harm or to offendother people. If an idea in a book is explicitly insulting a particular group orperson it could be censored, depending on the type of offense. If, for example abook says that African Americans are all stupid, simple, and should be killedoff for this fact the book should only be read by choice, and not be forced uponanyone. An adult is capable of making a choice not to read, or allow their childto read a book that is expressly offensive to them. People always seem to be notconcerned with what they read, but with what other people read. Quite often itis a white person that bans a book for fear that it might insult an AfricanAmerican, or a male, thinking that it might insult a female. Did you everhear anyone say That work had better be banned because I might read it and itmight me very damaging to me? People should really only censor forthemselves, and they should be allowed to censor for themselves. The mindthat becomes soiled in youth can never again be washed clean Thisstatement is in many cases true. Small children should not be exposed topornography, or to extreme violence, for their developing minds are veryimpressionable. However they can be exposed to a wide variety of ideas, so thatas they grow older they can decide for themselves what and who they want to be. Business Ethics EssayAs we look back at history, censorship has been gradually introduced and eliminated. Idolized role models have taken their own stand against censorship, such as the rap group 2 Live Crew, defending censorship against their own music. The Internet has added a whole new dimension to the issue, and introduced a whole new form of media that is virtually impossible to control. With the advances in technology, and the numerous new methods of transmitting media, it is a possibility that censorship will be unable to exist in future years. Social Issues Essays