WWRAHD? #2

[athelind]

I began to sense faintly that secrecy is the keystone of all tyranny. Not force, but secrecy . . . censorship. When any government, or any church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects, "This you may not read, this you must not see, this you are forbidden to know," the end result is tyranny and oppression, no matter how holy the motives. Mighty little force is needed to control a man whose mind has been hoodwinked; contrariwise, no amount of force can control a free man, a man whose mind is free. No, not the rack, not fission bombs, not anything--you can't conquer a free man; the most you can do is kill him.

--Robert A. Heinlein, "If This Goes On--" (1940)

Comments

[stalbon.livejournal.com]

Quite true. Most, if not all, censorship is done to protect things, however. The youth of America, our sensitive eyes and ears...or even women (I mostly think of the Middle Eastern traditions here, but workplace censorship came around for womens' rights). As for a 'free man', well...good luck with getting that in this society. No one is ever really free, sadly.

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

I think censorship of things for young people is not necessarily out of place, so long as the children get the opportunity to choose what to see and read as they get older. Are all movies appropriate for ten-year-olds? No. Is it censorship to prevent them from watching something inappropriate? Yes, technically, but it's expected that we'll do it. Protecting innocence for a few years means kids are better able to handle it when they are exposed to it.

That said, I abhor people who will not allow their kids to read Harry Potter books. If you're that worried about something designed for their age group, read it yourself, and then read it with them. Forbidden fruit is sweeter, and you don't want your child reading a book thinking, "I'm looking for what's wrong with this; there's got to be a reason I'm not allowed to read it." They would find all the reasons, but they would miss most of the good stuff in the process.

[stalbon.livejournal.com]

It's sadly sometimes not up to us whether our children can watch things. Things made FOR children become censored. Disney is the largest problem here, but I won't go into that.

[kyteriah.livejournal.com]

What would he do? He'd write some books to help open people's minds! It's the only humane thing to do to people suffering tyranny.

[araquan.livejournal.com]

Best to use asbestos paper when tyrrany gets into full swing.

[bfdragon.livejournal.com]

That is just what I was thinking about the other day, and a great way to put it. If I had to give up all of my freedoms but one, I would choose my freedom of speech and thought, true liberty is just around the corner from that. What good are all the guns if it's just you against the world? Or if you simply don't know of a better way?
It seems to me, that of any tyranny, this is the first freedom to be taken away, whether by censorship and control like fascist Italy, or something at a different level, like simply making so it is believed that thinking a certain way puts your soul at risk..

With apologies to Pratchett

[hitchkitty.livejournal.com]

Habes espiritum, habes cardis et mentum

When you have their souls, you have their hearts and minds.