End of Censorhip?

[Jaguar]

Greetings:

I was thinking the other day on how, despite the constant fightback from the regressives (as David Fleetwood would put it), we have generally succeeded through in cimenting civil liberties, fighting censorship and scientific progress. And considering that our social behaviour has also changed, seemingly always towards liberalism, I was thinking if the day that censorship will become immoral will come in the future.

I mean, thinking back, let's say half of the 1800's, the idea of women voting, studying and working would have been regarded from ridiculous to sinful. Considering that, do you it is feasible one day censorship becomes immoral?

Being realistic, most likely I won't be alive to see it. But I'd really think one day free speech will be nailed as a fundamental value of western culture. Sure, we will have blatant hate speech in some sectors, but also we could get rid of reporters being killed for reporters, call for murders like the one on Rushdie's head, and so on.

It is quite probably a society like that would have a scary face we might not find too nice, because at the same time that the perception of that changes, some other behaviours will change; some for the worse. But I digress, do you think such moment will ever come?

- The Jaguar

 

[Jotto999]

I don't think it will ever 100% end, but I think it'll get better. There happens to now be a huge growing worldwide decentralized medium for rapid information availability (the internet). As internet traffic continues to increase in the coming decade*, I'm guessing that censorship will be more difficult to pull off, since the internet exposes us to anyone and everyone's opinion. Censorship will still happen, just less, IMO.

*I am not sure how quickly internet traffic is growing in first world nations, but fast growing economies are going to add a lot of users shortly (especially China).

 

[Enigmaniac]

I suppose censorship goes hand in hand with the confidence a sitting ruling individual / group has when deciding how to run things, added with the level of responsibility said individual / group takes after taking action based on said decisions... the fact I'm talking about ruling parties here is mainly due to censorship's need to be enforced somehow, which is something reserved to those in positions of power and/or control. I'm also using the word "ruling" here flexibly, so you can insert government, manager or strict parent here at your leasure (although it might lead to some entertaining unforseen context... but hey, it's good to laugh!).

Censorship is applied to quell any perceived dangerous voice of dissent, which is not to be mistaken with taking time to silence clearly unreasonable or disrespectful words of opposition. It's okay to disagree and politely verbalize the arguments on which you base you opinion, so the opposing party can take their time to weigh your objections and reason with you wether or not to change the decision based on your added perspective on the matter (provided you give them any new arguments to be taken into account with the decision making, ofcourse). Should the added arguments still lead to maintaining the decision, the protestor should respect the decision and cooperate... who knows, the decision might be a wise one afterall and work out for the better. If it doesn't, the responsibility of making amends also falls on the shoulders of the ruling party... Such is both the reward and the burden of being a leader, and quite frankly it's one I do not envy.

Censorship on the other hand cuts off communication and forces a decision from the ruling party, which in my opinion is disrespectful and unwise since no human can gain the complete perspective of any problem faced. Quite frankly I find censorship to be a sign of a selfish disposition and inconfidence... if you can't back up decisions with solid reasoning, your decision is reckless (although an argument like "I'm making a quick call now since we need to intervene with an emergency now, and I'm reserving the right to admit things could've done more effectively in a different manner once we have dealt with said emergency" is a very notable exception).

In the end though, the only way to permanently ban censorship from this world would mean that all leaders appointed need to be congenial, confident and patient leaders with polite and reasonable opposition to strengthen the wisdom of the decision-process. That alone will prove to be a (nearly?) impossible task... but IMO it's worth aiming for anyway.

 

[Jaguar]

Greetings:

Enigmaniac makes very good points. I think freedom of speech, like any other controversy-generator issuse will always have some kind of opposition. At one point we might regress to a totalitarian censorship, but societies need oxygen, and criticizing our leaders is truly a relief for any country.

Also, I didn't take into account the advancement of the technology. Just look at the reaction the muslim world had with "Everybody Draw Muhammad Day", they realised they had been faced with a form of criticism they couldn't silence. So, as communications become available for everyone, and as long as they are spread and not-focused like the internet is, I think freedom of speech has the upper hand in the long run.

- The Jaguar

 

[Anachronous Rex]

To a certain extent censorship is already immoral in popular culture.

However, lest we forget, certain types of censorship are necessary be they moral or not. A television program that explains the relatively simple process by which soap can be converted into nitroglycerin, for instance.

 

[)O( Hytegia )O(]

Not to mention the fact that certain classified materials that keep troops and other human beings alive should be protected and trimmed out in every measure necessary.
:/
Imagine if your country's CRYPTO was available to download as freeware. How would any military organization manage anything if it can be decrypted within a download?
You benefit from censorship every time you log into a secure network. Every time you encrypt a message you are censoring your information from the rest of the world.

xD

Censorship is necessary to exist in a world with the interwebz, where any ammount of info can be obtained within the blink of an eye.