Free speech is the whole thing, the whole ball game. Free speech is life itself. This quote by Salman Rushdie, an Anglo-Indian censored novelist, sums up the importance of free speech to our society. Intellectual freedom is the exploration of all sides and points of view of a topic without restrictions. The restrictions being censorship. Life is based upon knowledge and experiences and being censored from different options brings about quite a controversy. Can we live like this? Can we live where our minds think freely but our ability to share and express ourselves is limited by oppressive censors?
Freedom through all types of media (books, magazines, films, or works of art) is my dream. I have a dream that someday the boundaries of our expression can expand to the extent of our thoughts. There is a clear fragile line (an unjust one at that but a line all the same) that is meant to protect ourselves from the obscene. It holds back everything that dares to push it. This line gets in the way when it violates our first amendment right. Our first amendment right gives us, as Americans, the freedom of speech and freedom of press. From the beginning of time, ever since people were able to speak their minds, there has been censorship.
Whenever a man has said anything that someone disapproves of and restricts others from, that is censorship. However, in my dream, I believe that any man shall be given the inalienable right to share his ideas as long as he has them. I have a dream that society will learn to accept differences and appreciate breaks in conformity. Our individuality is a valued aspect of humanity. We have independent minds to think with, but society allows for only what is acceptable. What is accepted is what is mainstream. What is mainstream is something that goes with the flow of the river of the societys opinions.
Rocks or interferences in the river are frowned upon and essentially cut out. Through censors, peoples different ideas can be thrown out. In the early days, men who had a point of view that contradicted the church or whoever was in power were burned at the stake. Symbolically, the creator of the controversy is destroyed when his/her idea is not accepted or banned. For example: my favorite film maker, Larry Clarks movies were banned and edited because his thoughts and opinions about teenage life (although pretty accurate) were too extreme for the average conservative closed-minded man.
I have a dream that everyone can be exposed and become more knowledgeable while keeping their personal values. Parents are for censors because they believe that their children should not be exposed to certain things on television, in books, etc. I feel that parents should look out for their own children and not block others. Mark Twain puts a metaphor to it, Censorship is telling a man he cant have a steak just because a baby cant chew it. Censorship should not exist for the sole reason of keeping things from children.
I believe that children should be exposed to the real world and gain knowledge from it to make their own decisions based on their own values and morality. People need to make judgements for themselves instead of imposing their opinions and restricting others. In order to expand our minds we must look and explore all ideas without censorship. The future looks bright and sunny when all people can say and write and express what they please. If we can only work together to use our minds to their maximum capacity.
