What Can I Say?

Ray Bradbury's book "Fahrenheit 451" has a lot to say on the subject of censorship. In it, America has turned into a place where political correctness is the only acceptable route, and everyone is mindlessly entertained almost 24 hours non-stop. Reading books is against the law since the things in them might make people uncomfortable or disrupt the happy, mindless society. Instead of being revered for the knowledge that they contain, the books along with the buildings in which they are found, and sometimes even the people found hiding them, are ruthlessly burned to ashes.

Nevertheless, is censorship truly wrong? There is one side that says that having the ability to say whatever one pleases in any form, as long as they are not physically hurting another human being, is an innate right that everyone should have. However, there are also many who lean to the side of filtering "bad" content out of things before they make it into the public square, where it can end up damaging people, their lives, and society as a whole. This point of view is quite compelling, but is it really the answer?

The problem with censorship is that there are no clear cut black-and-white rules that everyone can agree to go by. While keeping people from having to suffer the filth of pornography, the injury of bad language, and the misleading of lies, there is no way to keep the truth and other good and pure things from also suffering under the editing knife. Without an absolute, unchanging standard to go by, censorship is left up to the whims of whoever is in power at the time. This has been seen throughout history when governments are given the power to filter everything that their people see and hear, allowing only the things that help fulfill their agenda to go through, even if it means repressing the truth and, at times, permitting blatant lies. In this way, censorship can do people just as much, if not more, harm than good. There is also the problem with the censorship that has come with the title of "Political Correctness." One of people's worst fears today is offending others by what they say. Only neutral titles can be used to refer to people, and to say that anything that anyone does is inherently wrong is labeled "hate speech" and can end up having a person carted off to jail for being honest. Censorship always comes with the risk of suppressing the truth.

It is important for all points of view to be heard and carefully weighed. This does not mean that everything that everyone says should be accepted as truth, but without hearing what others, even those with home we disagree, have to say, our own point of view will not be allowed to develop. Our understanding of the world around us will remain as that of a child.

However, does this mean that we should just leave our culture alone as it travels down a slippery road to the depths of immorality? Do we have to accept everything that we come across and allow ourselves and our children to be exposed to filth? No, we should not stand idly by while our society deteriorates, but it is not the government's job, especially in today's world of moral relativity, to say what ideas should be allowed or not allowed. It is the people's job to take a stand for what is right and true. If we do that, then, hopefully, we will never have to face a world so severely censored as the one that Ray Bradbury wrote about.