More on Censorship
As writers, we often find ourselves exploring the depths to which human beings might fall, but seldom do our explorations descend to the level we have seen from the likes of ISIS, Boko Haram, or Al Qaeda, and their ilk. To be sure, the actions of terrorists are worse than despicable, but might they be the escalation of attitudes we tolerate every day?
There seems to be an attitude that one has a basic human "right" to never be offended. We see it in the political correctness that has infected Western societies. It is in the number of stories we see on the number of grievance related lawsuits. Everyone is offended by something, it seems. What ever happened to the children's saying "sticks and stones can break my bones, but words will never hurt me?"
Almost certainly we will write, or say something that offends someone, even in a work of fiction. It leads me to ask why some are afraid of ideas, and must silence, and sometimes criminalize, the ones they don't like. We react strongly to a North Korea who tries to silence what it sees as criticism, or to the Cuban or Saudi governments for imprisoning their citizens for speaking out, but we tolerate university "speech codes," or enact actual laws governing what people can say, as well as where and how they may say it. The Internet may well be the last bastion of free speech still standing, but there are those who propose to regulate what is out there in cyberspace and how it is delivered.
Other than a matter of degree, is there a lot of distance between laws regulating the free exercise of speech or religion, and the slaughter of innocent people for holding religious or political views different from our own?
The motivations are the same. Regulate what you don't agree with, eliminate it with legislation, or use violence. The effect is the same. Voices are silenced.
The distance is not far at all, and the slope is slippery.
There seems to be an attitude that one has a basic human "right" to never be offended. We see it in the political correctness that has infected Western societies. It is in the number of stories we see on the number of grievance related lawsuits. Everyone is offended by something, it seems. What ever happened to the children's saying "sticks and stones can break my bones, but words will never hurt me?"
Almost certainly we will write, or say something that offends someone, even in a work of fiction. It leads me to ask why some are afraid of ideas, and must silence, and sometimes criminalize, the ones they don't like. We react strongly to a North Korea who tries to silence what it sees as criticism, or to the Cuban or Saudi governments for imprisoning their citizens for speaking out, but we tolerate university "speech codes," or enact actual laws governing what people can say, as well as where and how they may say it. The Internet may well be the last bastion of free speech still standing, but there are those who propose to regulate what is out there in cyberspace and how it is delivered.
Other than a matter of degree, is there a lot of distance between laws regulating the free exercise of speech or religion, and the slaughter of innocent people for holding religious or political views different from our own?
The motivations are the same. Regulate what you don't agree with, eliminate it with legislation, or use violence. The effect is the same. Voices are silenced.
The distance is not far at all, and the slope is slippery.
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