Censorship

[Stardust]

Harry Potter is banned from our school library because it "encourages witchcraft". We had a drive to get submitted DVDs to give to soldiers, but we couldn't hand in anything over PG13. I can't watch most Comedy Central shows without half of it being bleeped out.

What do you think about all this? Is censorship something we need to live with, or is it crossing a line? How far should we go with censorship? In The Martian Chronicles, they burned and destroyed anything that wasn't true (all fiction) because it distorted the line between fiction and reality and was a danger to society. Do you think we'll ever get to this point?

 

[Trachea]

Do you go to a Catholic school? If not, I don't think public school can exercise censorship on those grounds. Blame parents who sue TV companies for the bleeping out of words.

 

[Stardust]

I'm in a public school, and I'm not really sure what's in place that allows them to censor things. I'm not concerned about it and they were just examples, anyway.

From what you've posted, I'm assuming you wouldn't bleep out words? Do you think there are certain things that should be bleeped out and other things that shouldn't be?

 

[Trachea]

Yeah, I wouldn't bleep out any words. If parents don't want their children to see or hear something, they need to take responsibility. There are way to program vchips and such that make it very easy to block things.

 

[Ellie]

Round here we have hardly any censorship so I can't really comment as well as an American I guess. Mock the Week for example, attempted to bleep "Fuck" but didn't bleep "Nigger", and shit is fairplay. In school we watched Doom and such 18 films at 13, and we don't have an M classification.

In my opinion though censorship is fucking retarded. Fair enough we can prevent kiddies from seeing porn, that's a sortof different matter, but outright censorship is forcing your beliefs on someone (for example, the censor obviously believes you shouldn't hear the word "Fuck" on Mock the Week).

Nothing should be bleeped out, removed, etc, unless it's specifically insighting violence. By this I mean if someone publishes a book called "You should all stab your Chemistry teacher and this is the best way to do it without being caught" then that should be banned. Only because it's actually trying to get people to break the law. But a book called "My fuckparts and I" being censored because of the word "fuckparts" would be stupid.

 

[rey meustrus]

I'm not concerned about it and they were just examples, anyway.

That's what allows them to censor things. There are people who care a lot that their children are being sheltered, and there are people who don't care that their freedom to information is being breached, especially someplace like a high school because the kids who want to see the naughty stuff know they're not supposed to and don't really question it. I can get really tired of high-school-style censorship, especially because it has nothing to do with how young the people are, but the fact that (some) parents want their precious babies to be sheltered from the world. It isn't just about their young children, it can be about any of their offspring no matter how old, as long as they're still weak enough to submit to their parents. What I mean to say is, people censor things because they want to protect the ones they love, not because it will actually hurt them.

 

[Stardust]

I could get into a very long explanation of how fucked up my school is, but I'll refrain. My area used to be a farming area. There's a Catholic church like 50 yards from the school. The people here aren't exactly open to new ideas. I could fight it just like I could fight half of the messed up shit, but the only thing it would get me would be a lot of aggravation.

Although, that's certainly a good point you made. We will allow censorship to proceed until it affects us enough to make us want to take action. It is ultimately our decision on what's allowable. And, at the moment, censoring words, books, violence, and most media, is acceptable in our eyes. Or at least enough to warrant a lack of action. We want to protect children from reality as much as possible, which could be good or bad depending on your point of view.

Perhaps censorship in homes is more of a problem since, as far as I know, every person is thought of as "the child of Mr. and Mrs." until they're 18. Parents have, in essence, ownership of their children unless that ownership has been taken by the government. But, I digress, as the handling of children is a completely different subject.

So, we pretty much share the same idea that censorship in media is a bad thing. I'll attribute that to the ideals of this generation (one that hasn't had children yet). But, what about government censorship? What about Area 51 and secret government programs? I'm not well-educated in the handling of other governments, but I'm sure there are secrets in foreign (to me, as in not U.S.) governments, as well. Should the government be able to keep secrets from the public or should the information be released (either immediately or after a set time)?

 

[Trachea]

Let's not go so far as to say Area 51, but let's talk about every time the government has said "no comment" or something equivalent. Is that censorship, really? It's not like the are taking what is normally available and getting rid of it, they are simply keeping secrets. "Many people use this to argue against the Patriot Act. If the government can keep their secrets, why can't we?"

Personally, I don't know, but I'm just presenting some arguments for the sake of continuing the discussion.

 

[Stardust]

They've lied numerous times about Area 51, so I view it as relevant. They've told people that were staring at the base that it didn't exist.

It's a form of censorship, or at least that's how I classify it. We're being denied information in both situations. Everyone keeps secrets, but their secrets can harm us much more than a few bleeped out words can. I'd like to be aware of what we can do. I don't want to watch the beginning of a nuclear war and see secret government ion cannons being fired and saucers speeding toward the enemy and lasers blasting through human beings. Some things need to be protected for security reasons, but I believe we should have a general idea of what our government is capable of. Not for curiosity, just for the benefits we could receive from their research. I'd be a little angry if we could really travel through space with ease and the government's been keeping that a secret.

 

[Trachea]

Hell, I'd start a riot, but let's not get too angry about that yet, since we aren't sure it was blocked from us. What we do know we've been censored from is something like the AIDS concert in the 80s by FOX. That angers me, and I wasn't even alive.

 

[FallaciaSonata]

Censorship....(The following is entirely my opinion.)

I think this goes back to....well, the home. The heart of everything. I believe that the parents should be the only ones controlling what their children can and cannot do / see. Period.

That said, I don't necessarily agree with schools being able to censor things, because that takes power away from the parents and gives it to the school / government. Not only is this detrimental to the society itself, but it hurts both the parent and child.

You see, the parent is being deprived (or relieved, in some people's views), of responsibility to the child. This causes the parent to either lament for the loss of control, or lose interest in raising the child. (After all, why teach them rules them when the school will for you?)
This also causes an authority issue with the child: That being, who is more important to listen to? My parents or my school system / government?

However, I also agree with the pornography comment. Schools should censor sexually explicit content, and the like, but that brings up another rough question: What is the exact definition of sexually explicit, and the like? Where is the line in the sand?

Here is where the root of the problem lies: Without a form of a higher law, or a moral, or perhaps a Biblical principal, we have nothing to compare our laws / rules to.

What this does....is terrible. It creates a rift between those who follow Common Law and those who follow Political Law. Instead of living in a world of black-and-white rules, you end up with a sliver of black, a sliver of white, and an incredibly large "gray area" that people end up fighting over.

This is why censorship, war, drugs, abortion, discipline, and numerous other problems cannot be solved in a "majority rules" situation. If the majority always rules, then there is no "set in stone" law. Our principals, laws, rules, and even our Constitution change at the whim of the majority.

Our system is flawed, like every other system mankind has ever known. Do you see how fleeting it is? And then there's political corruption....and now I'm way off topic.

I suppose I should cut to the chase, now that I've babbled on for awhile. Schools should not be able to censor material based on their rules or rules implemented by the government, state, or city. If any censorship is to be done, it should be at the discretion of the parents, *not* the school administration.


....After all, this is supposed to be a free country, right?


....Or is it?

 

[rey meustrus]

Unfortunately, different parents will disagree about what they want their children to see. That's why there's so much censorship, because the school has to gear its own rules to the strictest parents or else they will sue. Seriously, they will sue the school, and even though they won't win, it's easier to give in and the school doesn't care if the students are being censored or not, because the students aren't fighting for their own rights (and when they do, administrators quickly bash them down anyway).

As for classification of government information, that's not censorship, as has been said. Censorship is when you are prevented from seeing something for your own benefit. Area 51 was concealed as a government installation for the good of all American people, as a Cold War military base. When individual Americans were being told it didn't exist, they were just random individuals that may or may not have been Soviet spies (as far as the government knew, and they were that paranoid), not the American people as a whole. This applies to military classification in general, except that in corrupt situations, the information is secret because it might harm government officials, not because it might harm the citizenry.

 

[Stardust]

Should censorship be the responsibility of the parent or the government? It's an interesting question that has a huge impact on the results. Should each parent be solely responsible for saying what their child can and cannot see, or is it the government's responsibility to make guidelines? At the moment, it's a mixture of both, but that is creating some confusion. Is it alright to work with it like we've been doing, or does something need to change?

I'm going to say that government should have the say in what should be censored. I have more faith in our republic than in individuals. Parents are good for a while, but by the time someone is able to think fully for himself or herself, the parents are nothing but a restraint caused by the fear of "losing their baby". If their child shows the slightest sign of enjoying movies or books with violence, some parents go into panic mode and think they're going to grow up to be a mass murderer. Meanwhile, that "child" is actually 16. Also, government control would create a unity that we seem to be lacking. We're kind of in the grey area on most things, and what's right and wrong needs to be defined.

 

[Trachea]

Students have no rights while in school. I've discussed the fact with some of my teachers. So we can't really fight for something we don't have while there.

 

[rey meustrus]

I suppose you don't have any given power, do you? Why not stage a rebellion? Why not get everybody to stand out? All that you have to let go of is grades, and those don't really matter anyway, at least not as much as they'd have you think. Even if you're planning on going to college, trust me, it's way more fun to go to a college that doesn't require gigantic grades. There isn't as much pressure, and often there are larger academic communities because the students are there to learn (else they wouldn't be there, they're not as much part of the "high grades, go crazy academic" culture so they don't feel obliged to go).

So, in short, I support mass organizations of high schools students rebelling against school censorship, among other things (curriculum requirements enforced from a bureaucracy, rather than from actual teachers, emphasis on homework and teaching to the test over the development of a love of learning)

 

[Guest]

where im at you can say anything you want and nothing is censored

 

[Nachos]

pffffffffff worth than thousand words

Spoiler: gay image

Don't post shit like this here. :|
-Luminier

 

[Kraft]

When it comes to censorship I think that things such as nudity and like... excessive swearing should be censored on things like TV. I do agree with you that banning things like "Harry Potter" is freaking gay, because sure... while I guess it could encourage witchcraft... YTF is That bad? If kida want to dress up and carry wands around... thats their problem. It is a freaking Free country! (oh, lol, with this last comment I am assuming you live in the US... correct me if I am wrong ^_^)

And even so, the whole "only pg movies for soldier drive"... thats so lame! If I was a soldier, I would definetly want something with a little more action and drive behind it than a PG movie! I wouldnt be caught dead watching some crappy PG movie unless it was Wall-E (amazing movie!)

Anyways... Yeah. all above IMO