Despite all attempts to end it, Censorship is alive and well

Censorship is not only a way for personal freedom to be suppressed, it is a way for certain groups, not necessarily the government, to take their views and force them onto other members of a society, a greater crime than any perpetrated against a single being or group physically. The assault on ideas destroys the very core of what being a free person truly means.

If we, as citizens, examine all of the cases of censorship, we would not be alive when all these cases are given the attention they deserve. But assuming that it could be accomplished, we would find that the vast majority of cases are driven by private entities and interest groups and no the government. Orwell may have dreamed up that dystopian future, but that doesn't mean it is correct.

The most prevalent example of private interest driven censorship would most likely be book banning. In almost all states, there has been many such book banning movements, some based on honest objections to obscene material, most based upon the perceived "blasphemy" of the book itself. Whether that book be Harry Potter that has been determined to be anti-Christian and/or supporting Wicca because of the references to witchcraft and Christian holidays in the same book, or Are You There God, It's Me, Margaret for again, references to God and biological maturity, censorship is generally employed to prevent the spread of ideas that "go against" what certain majority groups deem acceptable.

Censorship, therefore, is probably the most threatening thing that the freedom encounters. It not only is an attempt to control others, it is an attempt to shield people from truth, whether the truth be common knowledge or not. By common knowledge, I mean that is it well known through out the society anyway, but is being refused acknowledgment by official means. It is most probably akin to a rumor, one that is true, but must be whispered all the same. It is this sort of denial that causes so many problems in this world, both on a micro and macro level.

It is the equivalent to someone refusing to look at someone in the eye. The person knows his companion is there, but refuses to notice his presence by looking at him. Why, we may ask, and that is the question behind all censorship.

Why deny what is known to be true? Why hide behind a facade of false knowledge and suppression? If those questions could be answered, then this blog entry would be rendered moot.

Censorship is the epitome of freedom suppression. People are on thing, but ideas and the freedom of speech are thing that despite all the bad things in th world, should always be free to move and spread. Fear is what stops it, something officially called "concern" but again, just another censor of the truth.