censorship in society essays

censorship in society essays If our society decides to have censorship, we compromise our freedom of speech and are left with the chore of deciding where to draw the illusive and unstable line between what should be censored and what should not. When the issue of censorship needs to be addressed question arise such as Who will enforce it? and Who will decide what is right? Ironically, the people who censor materials to protect the common people do not have the common persons best interest in mind. It is the people in power who censor to protect the disempowered and impose the views of a small percentage of society on the masses. Censorship will never reduce oppression and domination, but add to the problem, as people are left inane and ignorant. Censorship will never give people comfort and security for it is often hypocritical and in many times creates conflicts of interest. Violent and sexually explicit material are tolerated in our mainstream society to a certain degree. Images of rape and torture are tolerated within this section of our society within certain circumstance. The rape of the Sabine Women, the Martyrdom of St. Agathe and the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ are iconographic pictures which many artists throughout history have depicted and are consistently shown within art museums. While these are being represented in many places, a work of art, which challenges our modern culture, will face resistance and censorship due to homophobic, sexist and racist reactions. But go many places and it is easy to find degrading images of women in porn magazines to mainstream advertising. Why government bureaucrats get to see material that they forbid the rest of us to see is outrageous. Not only do they not have to pay for the material in question; we actually pay them to see it. If the rational for censorship is that "obscene" material automatically corrup ts minds and produces anti-social ...