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What is censorship? It is the covering up of something, whether it be a sound, printed text, or a picture. Censorship has been around for ages for various reasons. Governments use them to control the general populace while others use it to establish certain ethical ideals upon an entire population. But is censorship itself right? John Stuart Mill would say no. In his book On Liberty, he discusses how he believes that the only type of censorship should be held against ones self to keep self-damaging information to be let loose. In other words, if it does not hurt you, everyone should be allowed to hear. This includes slander and libel, pornography, "swear words", everything. Now, why, you may be asking, should we allow libel and slander? Well, Mill says that if you are innocent of the henous charges against you, it will come out that they are false by your proof that they are false. This makes you look perfectly fine to the public and the accuser look like a liar and instigator. Pornography and "swear words". These are often censored to protect "our children". Hate to tell you this, folks, but that is just complete bunk. Porn is readily available on the Net, and if a child knows his way around the Internet he could very likely find pornography in a matter of minutes. As for "swear words", I don't know the origin of this label, but these unfairly deemed "dirty words" are just words that society for some idiotic reason has decided to deem shameful to use. Now the ludicrous part about all of this is that they are just words. The strength of the meaning is only as strong as you interpret them to be and how they are used. Probably most people object to swear words because they have such negative connotations and if you hear them they are most likely meant for you, so getting rid of the words means that can't be used against you. Other than that, they are logically just as "bad" as the word ethics. Besides, the children defense is stupid since if parents would just watch what their children were doing they would not have to have censorship in the first place. Yes, I know parents work and don't have 24/7 to spend with their children. But that is not a valid excuse. If you are so worried about pornography, don't let your kids use the Internet when you are not there. Put on anti-porn software. Or just live with the fact that your children are going to be curious and look anyway and let them draw their own conclusions. Censorship essentially boils down to control. Either by government or by groups trying to force their ethical beliefs upon others, censorship is wrong. Let each individual make their own decision on what they want to see, hear, or read. But then again, at least you can read this because if significant governmental censorship was used in America I would be screwed. Sorry, didn't mean to censor myself. Growing up in America kind of trains you to censor yourself and the other around you. I meant to say fucked... |