See No Evil

"Censorship has followed the free expressions of men and women like a shadow throughout history." Mette Neweth

I recently came across the following video:

Given Jimmy Kimmel's compilation of unnecessarily censored videos clips and Catherine's post on newspapers, I've been thinking a lot about censorship lately and wanted to learn more about the subject.

So often when I consider censorship, particularly in popular media, I often think of censorship similar to the kind found in the video above: random bleeps and blurs, trying to hide the full picture (even if there's nothing wrong with it!). As I viewed more of Kimmel's unnecessary censorship videos, I saw a comment that said, "All censorship is unnecessary censorship." The more I think about it, the more I realize that the large majority of censorship isn't a means of protecting the innocent, but a means of endowing power to those in authority.

What is censorship?

Censorship isn't just about removing words or pictures from a film, book, or newspaper, it's about removing ideas from society. Just as Nazis discovered in WWII, "censorship is not so much about the books as it is about control. The Nazis may have thought that they were only burning books, but it went further than that: they were burning freedom of thought" (angelfire.com). With roots that predate the birth of Christ, censorship didn't begin with the printed word. It began with spoken thought.

One of the prime reasons behind its use, religious regulation has been an age-defying characteristic of censorship. Among some of the first known cases of censorship, the court-ordered death of Socrates 399 BC bears witness to this idea. Accused of polluting the youth with talk of gods outside those denoted by the government, he was sentenced to death by poisoning in the "best interest of the public" (Newth). Jumping  several hundred years ahead, religious censorship was still being practiced in pre-Christian churches. Although leaders did not limit accessability to sources that popularized beliefs contrary to their teachings, followers found in posession of or spreading such ideals were severely punished.

An early edition of Index Librorum
Prohibitorum

When the printed word came to being with the 1440 invention of the printing press, the confrontation between control in the church and "heretic" groups quickly began to escalate. With the printing press at their disposal, people in favor of Protestant Reformation could more easily spread opposition to the Catholic Church. At the same time, the Catholic Church also utilized the printing press to propigate warning against Protestant beliefs.

This eventually led to the first version of a Banned Books list, called the Index Librorum Prohibitorum. In 1559, Pope Paul IV issued the first edition of Index Librorum Prohibitorum, detailing which books were deemed inappropriate by the Church. Since then, 20 different editions have been released, with the last coming out in 1948. Beyond printed word though, the Catholic Church also controlled universities, libraries, and even the postal service, ensuring that what institutions put out was in line with Catholic teachings.

A stack of banned books

In all cases of censorship, the maintenance of a certain belief system plays a key role. Leaders wish to keep their followers and they seek to do that by prohibiting or perhaps advising against material that teaches contrary to their beliefs. Generally speaking, modern religious censorship is probably intended to be harmless and is moreso used to protect the members of a certain faith. Take the LDS church for instance: in modern days, our leaders have warned us not to watch R-rated films. This is a form of censorship. Harmful? No. Censorship? Yes.

Sometimes, religious groups take censorship to the extreme, seeking to ban books most of us find harmless. For example, since 1999 several Christian groups have been trying to ban the Harry Potter series in public schools and libraries. While the majority of people who have read Harry Potter find it harmless fiction, some argue that serves as a window into the pernicious evils of witchcraft. In a select few cases, Harry Potter has been banned and in fact, it tops the list for most challenged books by the American Library Association from 2000-2009.

Above all else, what I've come to understand about censorship is that its a matter of choice. Rather than be regulated by an organized religion or a government official, we should decide for ourselves what we will or will not view. I have a personal example: I've never seen a PG-13 movie. I definitely consider this my own personal form of censorship. It started out as a rule created by my mother, but I have decided for myself (especially since moving out) that it's a standard I want to keep for myself. And that's what censorship should be- setting a standard. For each person its different. Regardless of what others may try to force you to believe decide for YOURSELF what you believe. Choose for YOURSELF how you will act. And then go do it.