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It has been proved that it is unconstitutional and
damaging to literature but unless something is done to stop it, censorship will
be rampant in America now and into the future. Censorship *****’s “Censorship,
so far as I see it, is like a law which prohibits swimming altogether because
such a law will prevent someone from swimming in a sewer” (Brower 1). Here, in
the twenty-first century, the banning of thoughts and ideas in humanities and
media has become one of the most widely disputed issues facing this country.
Though it is highly controversial, hazardous to literature, and
unconstitutional, censorship is rampant in America. Censorship is defined as
“Policy of restricting the public expression of ideas, opinions, conceptions,
and impulses, which have or are believed to have the capacity to undermine the
governing authority or the social and moral order which that authority considers
itself bound to protect” (Abraham 357).
There is said to be four different
categories, which are referred to as political, religious, against obscenity,
and censorship affecting academic freedom. All of these categories are equal in
their destructiveness towards free speech. There are two different forms that
censorship takes; prior, which refers to advance suppression and “post facto”
which is suppression after it has been published (Brower 5). Authorities since
the beginning of the written word have used both of these forms of censorship.
Throughout history, figures that don’t have the real power to censor resort to
personal pressure tactics to intimidate those who have influence over, or in
command of, channels of communication. The McCarthy era during the 1940’s and
1950’s is a compelling example of this. During this time there was blacklisting
of controversial literary figures as well as performing artists, thus blocking
their employment in certain media such as movies, radio, and television.
By
doing this they accomplished the task of preventing the public from seeing what
they considered to be objectionable material (Dubin 27). There are many
rationalizations that are used by people that promote censorship. The first
rationalization is that ideas presented or about to be presented are “false”
and/or “dangerous” by the standards of the authorities and so they must be
suppressed or punished. The second is that the minds of those who would be
subjected to the ideas to be censored are not capable of seeing the “falsity”
and would hence be led astray. Lastly, ideas that lead to “anti-social behavior”
such as hardcore pornography must be censored (Abraham 360). For as many people
that use these rationalizations, there is as many that do not. Wherever there is
suppression of thoughts or ideas, whether it is in written form or spoken, there
will always be people who oppose it.
The reasons for protesting censorship are
wide and abundant but the most substantial reason is that our constitution
specifically forbids it. Anti-censorship activists feel that each individual
should have the right to see, and not to see whatever they want, and that there
should be no governmental involvement. Matt Lewis sums up their feelings when he
said, “Censorship is ultimately a prohibition against information. And as time
and history have and will repeatedly tell, does not work. How are we to learn
form out mistakes if we never know we made them”(Corner 4)? The most common way
that information is censored is with books. From Galileo, forced to recant his
beliefs and watch his works burned, to the Council appointed by King James to
develop the definitive English version of the Bible, which left so many books
out, and into the present day, censorship has tried to suppress ideas and books,
rather than refute them with better ones (Corner 1).
Banning books has become
very common in the 1990’s. From 1991 to 1994 the number of formal demands for
the removal of books from public and school libraries has increases by more than
50 percent. There were as many as 4,500 instances of book challenges in 1994 and
forty-two percent of the complainants were successful in having the offending
books banned (ALA). Some of the books that have been the most frequently banned
in 1990’s are: Of Mice and Men, The Catcher in the Rye, The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn, Blubber, A Day No Pigs Would Die, Little Red Riding Hood,
James and the Giant Peach, The Grapes of Wrath, Black Beauty, and Lord of the
Flies. Most of these books are award-winning classics but due to censorship some
people may never get the chance to read them.
Black Beauty has been removed from
shelves because it depicts cruelty to animals. The Adventures of Huckleberry
Finn has been banned because it contains the word “nigger”. “Even to the present
day, we so often condemn books that were written to fight the very things we
claim to be fighting. Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn is so often cited as being
racist, when it was written against slavery and racism” (Jennings). Most
frequently, books are challenged because they contain curse words, violence,
sex, homosexuality, or rebellious children (ALA). Many of these books are banned
in libraries. Librarians, who buy at least half of hardcover literary trade
books published, have ever-tightening budgets and face a constricted job market.
Under pressure from administrators not to land their school in midst of
controversy, many librarians have become increasingly cautious about the kind of
books they order.
Publishers respond by rejecting many manuscripts that contain
problematic language and stories on tough subjects like sexual abuse. Authors
also censor themselves, weeding out curse words and steering away from difficult
areas, regardless of feelings that such omissions affect the credibility of
their work (Jennings 34). When librarians, publishers, and writers censor
themselves the public is being denied the opportunity to decide for themselves
what is appropriate. There is still one more substantial reason that censorship
is hazardous. Amendment 1: “Congress shall make no law respecting an
establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging
the freedom of speech, or of the press or the right of the people to peaceably
assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievance” (The Bill
of Rights). What this means is that censorship is unconstitutional and that
there can not be any laws passed preventing free speech. Some people believe
that does not apply to students in public schools.
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