Essay/Term paper: Censorship

Essay, term paper, research paper:  College Papers

Censorship is a variety of things from yelling ^fire^ in a crowded
theater to showing sexual intercourse on television. These things
aren^t all either, there are millions of things we use or see every day
that are censored for a reason. The reason can be many but the three
most important reasons are for an adult or child^s wellbeing, for the
decency of our society and for privacy of each other. All of these
things are censored because our lives are influenced by these reasons
in one way or another. This will tell you that with out censorship we
would live in a world so dirty and irresponsible so indecent and
shameful that it could not exist. We pretty much ignore the growth in
violence and sexual abuse in our movies and on television. Have they
gone away? According to researchers at the University of Pennsylvania,
by the time an average child leaves high school, he or she will have
watched the happening of 18,000 murders on television. Prime time says
the National Coalition on Television Violence, is filled with degrading
sexual material and incidents ^where violence is strongly glamorized or
used to excite.^ There have been 85 major studies of the effects of
such violence on children. Eighty-four of the eighty- five concluded
that it caused an increase in all manner of aggressive behavior, up to
and including homicide. What happened to the one study that disagreed?
Well, they were paid off by the National Broadcasting Company that just
shows how guilty they are of producing violence from television.
Another study shows that American children are having sexual
intercourse at an average age of 16. If the te! levision was not
censored as much as it is today these things would be much worse, our
children would be sexual active at very young ages and crime rates
would shoot upward. A civilization does not rise in the strength of
it^s laws, however. It rises on the strength of its values. What
values are we teaching by not having censorship in our society? No its
not freedom of speech and its not freedom of the press. It is decency.
What all civilized social orders, including our own, have consistently
identified as decent, civilized behavior. The real threat to the
republic is not what might happen to rights, but what is happening to a
society grown dangerously out of touch with its own standards and
values. At the Irvine Meadows Amphitheater in California a 17 year old
girl was raped while more than 50 people watched, is that what our
values should be? Social orders are established, governments are
formed and laws are passed for one reason and one reason only, to
protect the people. Part of that task has to do with protecting people
against themselves, against the degrading and the uncivilized
influences that corrupt life and are every bit harmful as a blow to the
head or a gun in the rips.