censhorship
.... The cumulative effect of this absorption presumably allows the child to grow into a mature, rational, civilized adult who will take his/her place as a productive member of society. In U.S.society the law considers any person under the age of 18 an “infant” in the legal sense. This infant is looked upon as an individual only minimally reponsible for his/her acts. This infant cannot, for example, drive a car; engage in contractual activities; hold public office; etc. It is therefore the prime responsibility of parents to house, clothe, feed and protect this individual. Part of the parents’ protective responsibility is to present information to the child at the child’s appropriate level of maturity. In order to accomplish this it is clear that a measure of ‘censorship’ is needed. For example, a precocious child of 3 might ask, “Mommy, where did I come from?” The parent would normally ‘censor’ the full explanation of human productivity, and respond by simply saying, “You are a gift from God.” Any harmful information that distracts this legal ‘infant’ from the normal course of maturation should be censored. Pornography, for example, in the hands of pre-teens and teenagers has the affect of distracting the individual from pursuing his/her normal educational and recreational activities, thus interfering with the usual course of education and maturation. It follows that information involving the manufacture of a potentially harmful device, such as a bomb or homemade weapon should fall under such censorship. The individual citizen, in a free and open democratic society, is the only person who has a right to censorship, and that right is restricted to his/herself only. “All of us are censors. When we encounter expression we don’t like, we walk away, turn the page or switch the channel. That is our right.” (McMasters) Censorship is rooted in the firm belief that the censor knows what is best for all other persons. If the censor is a government official they may try to transfer that belief to their department, agency or even to their legislature. It follows that in this continuum an act of censorship might become the law of the land. The government has a responsibility to protect the citizenry from anything that might harm them; it does not have a responsibility to protect people from bad taste. The distinction between what is harmful and what is simply bad taste is not an easy one. For example when Edouard Manet’s “Le D’jeuner sur l’Herbe” was exhibited in Paris in 1863 it caused an uproar and was condemned by critics. The famous painting portrays a nude woman with two fully-dressed men having a picnic. The French condemned the art because they felt it was perfectly acceptable at the time to show nudes in a classical setting, but not in a contemporary one. In 2002 “Tumbling Woman”, a bronze by Jerry DeLaCruz depicting a naked woman in free-fall to honor those who fell or jumped from the World Trade Center on 9/11. Put on display at Rockefeller Center, the bronze was removed after passers-by complained that “ the piece was too disturbing and distasteful” ...