Censorship

Censorship of entertainment and the arts has been a large part of twenty-first century culture and societies. In this column, I will be addressing censorship of our senses of perception (sight and sound). There is no question that we have progressed and become much more open and welcome to arts of controversy and enlightenment, but we still have a long way to go and lately have been tarnishing works of art or symbols of entertainment for being politically incorrect (mascots, music etc.). To give a clear definition of my issue, one might recall hearing a song on the radio without all the words. Many songs are banned altogether from a public radio station due to profanity. This is an example of censorship of art and entertainment, of which I am profoundly against.

Those who support censorship of arts and entertainment claim that we must protect the youth and those who do not wish to view or hear anything inappropriate (from their perspective). The opposition feels that they are doing a service to the youth by keeping them innocent. They believe that we cannot expose our youth to material they feel we are not ready for. While this may be true for younger children in grade school and below, we cannot pretend we can shield middle and high school students from reality. 

In a poll taken during 4th hour lunch, 9/9 students believe that censorship of music, television, and literature is demeaning to the artist and his/her work. These same students also said they would enjoy said mediums of entertainment more if they were not censored. Of course, there is also the 1st amendment, the most obvious and prominent opposition of censorship. To think that freshmen in high school are not allowed to read J.D Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye for being vulgar is ridiculous and backwards. We also cannot tell where this could lead to. For example, in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, it is a crime to own a book due to the “dangerous” ideals it could present. Is this where we could be headed? Justifiably, the Nazi’s were also avid book burners. And now there is the issue of censoring music on public radio. As referenced in my earlier poll, 9/9 teens would enjoy said music if it was uncensored. Those who would not enjoy it or find it offensive have the option of turning it off or switching stations. The same principle can be applied to television and literature. Thus, we should slowly remove the bonds of censorship and free the works of art that have been disfigured due or mangled due to censorship.