History of censorship; a global perspective on propaganda
To understand the future, we must examine the past, starting with perhaps the most famous and recorded example of censorship of ancient times namely the execution of Socrates in 399 BC, when the first act of state-sponsored censorship was conducted. Socrates was a philosopher and teacher in ancient Greece. Sentenced to death for his actions, he was forced to drink a poison liquid. He was charged for corrupting the youth of Athens with his controversial teaching methods and drawing them away from the Greek religion. In the ancient Roman empire is there where The origin of the term censorship came to existence and where the word “censor” was first introduced, coming from the word cencere meaning to appraise, value, or judge. the Office of Censor was established in the beginning of 443 BC where the official duties of the Roman censor were to conduct the census by counting, assessing, and evaluating the populace. Also listed with the censor’s duties was the regulation and supervision of public morality. The term as represented by the government took its meaning as the suppression of ideas and images and the responsibility to mold the individual. Also in communities of ancient Greek and China the ideal of “good governance” included shaping the minds of people.
Same thing, different way
So what does this show us. Have we learned from our history? Has anything changed since the inception of state-sponsored censorship? When we as individual people with our “so called” freedom of speech and expression are being punished for questioning the teaching of our government (in whom we give our trust). For ages censorship amongst other things is being used by those with the most power to mold the minds of people for their own propaganda. The story of Socrates is that he was punished for following his own life philosophy and not being led by religion, political parties or group thinking. Apparently our society has not changes since then. We like to believe that we have evolved since then. That as a human race we became smarter. Instead we are a self-destructive race. Do we really have freedom? Or are we led to believe that we are? And how is the story of Socrates any different than for instance Edward Snowden, the modern day Socrates, responsible for the biggest intelligence breach in US history.
He questioned the credibility of the most powerful National Security Agency (NSA) for whom he worked. He leaked top secret information about the agency which he believed were propaganda. He says that he does not want to live in a society that does these sort of things and therefore took matters in his own hands and leaked top secret information to inform people of the TRUTH.I believe he did us a favour and once again proofed that we as common civilians are kept in the dark about what is really going on in the world. Just like Socrates, Edward Snowden is demanded a punishment to the fullest extent for having disseminated knowledge. Of course he is not sentenced to death and the situation, reason and means are not the same but the moral of the story nevertheless is.