Censorship

Thesis Statement

Censorship has played a major role through out the course of history in literature and beyond. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding by Locke is a prime example of this.

Research Question

To what extent has censorship affected humanity in the 17h century?

How does it affect us presently? Banned I phone Apps, music, etc.

Discussion

Censorship never dies: like intellectual freedom of which it is a part, it goes on changing its form. The discussion reviews some of the key social, political, religious, artistic and moral factors, suggests that censorship is an area which pre-eminently brings out the worst and best because it is more complex than it looks, because consensus is rare, because everyone thinks they are right, and because professional and personal roles work together and sometimes get confused(Bedford, 190). Statements about intellectual freedom and rights are aspiration for practitioners trying to make personal decisions about what is acceptable and accountable. Reference is made to political correctness, alleged harms, community standards, and the role of the information professional as an intermediary(Curry, 100).

It is said that censorship never dies, it changes its form. Debates about politically acceptable ideas and books continue in current debates about extremism on the Internet. Issues of human rights preoccupy us today, just as they have in prior centuries. We are interested in what ideas and media circulate in society, concerned about what impact they are having on our children, wondering how to balance law and order on the one hand and freedom of action and speech on the other(Edwards, 67).

There are many examples, today and in the past, of where societies, and particularly institutionalised power, have set out to control the creation and dissemination of ideas. The index of prohibited books, back in 1564, defined what books and authors could be read by Catholics. Nazi Germany, Stalin's Russia, apartheid South Africa, and many states today, set up systematic control of ideas as part of a wider ideological and social control. Look at the political, ideological, religious, moral, artistic, and educational context in any study of censorship.

Censorship changes: many people believe that we are getting more enlightened and tolerant as time goes by, allowing more pluralistic access to information and media, being more accepting of ethical diversity(McDonald, 80). Others believe that dangers face society from too much access to all forms of information and ideas, above all by children, and above all because of the Internet, and so advocate greater restraint and control.

These “conservatives” and “liberals” look to many formally and informally established groups in society to support their cause: the government, the legislators, the police, the teachers, the church, the family, and others. You may wish to consider whether there really are two groups, conservatives and liberals, on matters of censorship.

Too much control can be tyranny, while too much tolerance can dwindle into passive and unthinking relativism. This is very abstract unless you and I apply it to particular things. What gives any group in society the “right” to control information and ideas? Many of these issues ...