The pros and cons of "censorship"May 10 '00 Write an essay on this topic."Censorship" is a buzzword. It is a word used to evoke a viseral negative reaction. "How DARE they tell me what I can see!" is supposed to be the usual reaction. Quite often, this is with good reason. Repressive governments have long used censorship to repress the thoughts of the people and to crush movements toward freedom and democracy. We should be wary of any kind of government censorship. But too often, the cry of "censorship" goes out against what is not truly censorship, but simply selectivity, as if having any kind of taste makes us repressive censors. "How dare Wal-Mart not sell Penthouse! That's CENSORSHIP!" is the cry. Sorry, but no it's not. That is a business decision on the part of a private company on what they choose to associate with their corporate name. Wal-Mart is not banning Penthouse, they are simply chosing not to sell it. That is their right. If you want to buy it, you go somewhere else. That is your right. One personal peeve of mine is when artists claim the right to take government money and then have no restrictions in what they create. They just took someone else's money! Of course the people (that is, the taxpayers) have the right to put restrictions on that gift. If you truly believe that artistic freedom is paramount to your creativity, then don't take handouts from the government. Government money is tainted money. The minute you take it, you are under someone else's authority. If you don't like those restrictions, don't take the money. Film censorship is another issue. I strongly believe in film censorship. The movies in this country were censored for 40 years and during that time, they were never better. The most censored era (1930s-1960s) in Hollywood is called "classic film" or "the Golden Era of movies". Far from being restrictive of creativity, the censorship ensured creativity because it put standards up that had to be reached toward and achieved. A Filmmaker couldn't just take the easy (and sleazy) way out by getting profits by sticking a lot of naked women into a film. He had to be more creative than that. The simple fact is, that when the movies were censored the movies were GOOD. A new version of the "Hays Code" (the old film censorship code") seems to me to be a good idea. Going back to the old one would not be feasible, as it reflected a world that simply no longer exists (some of the words banned by the old code were "mistress" "virgin" "seduction" "housebroken" and "alley cat"), but a newly written code reflecting our own culture may not be a bad idea. Having a clear set of guidelines of what we, as a society, will and will not accept could work quite well. As a parent, you absolutely MUST be a censor! Letting your child sit and watch anything that flickers is not doing him any favors. Television, books, films and other entertainments are filled with input which you may or may not want your child exposed to. In this case, it is your job to censor. "Censorship" has become a "dirty word". It brings to mind bluenosed prudes banning classic literature. But realistically, every time you exercise taste, discernment and discretion, you are practicing censorship. In that sense, we should have a lot more censorship today.  |
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