Has censorship become more destructive?
Is censorship practiced in history more destructive than the forms of censorship today? Censorship now a days goes viral. Which means that the effect of censorship thru media reaches larger masses of people. Thus can be more destructive. Back in ancient times the only form of mass communication was thru printed press, mostly books and newspapers. The burning of libraries or banning of books were a common practice. For example the introduction of the Index Librorum Prohibitorum. A list of book that were banned by the Pope in the 15th century in order to control the dissemination of knowledge and to control the minds of people. In this time the Roman Church controlled all the universities and publications. The same thing is happening today but in a modern form. Take North Korea for instance. North Korea has a high degree of censorship and no freedom of the press. Censorship in North Korea is strictly enforced by the government who controls all media outlets. All media in North Korea gets its news from the Korean Central News Agency. The difference in this example is that the Roman Church used censorship for religious propaganda and in North Korea it is used for political propaganda. The similarities are that censorship is used to control the dissemination of knowledge in order to control the minds of people. So which is more destructive? One can contemplate the morals of this form of censorship, or the extent of the effect that it has on the mass population. In case of the last one I believe censorship today is more destructive. As said before, we are only making it worse. Everything now is in it’s extreme. We need more money, more power, more technology but when does it end. Nevertheless human nature has never changed.
Do we really want to know everything?
It is no secret that the ones who hold the power controls the people. And this hasn’t changed up until today. The difference is that we use more advanced technology such as media and entertainment. Think of the internet, television, music and film etc. But do we really want to know everything? Censorship is important because people should not have to be subject to all things. In theory there isn’t any reason to believe censorship is good however in practice it is. Depending on the intent of the matter censorship is necessary. As special considering obscene violent and/or sexually explicit content. So when is censorship considered good? I believe when censorship protects you from harm, it can be good.
Censorship Good or Bad?