Censorship

Words are such simple things, nothing more than an arrangement of letters that we use to represent a thought, thing or feeling. No word, in and of itself, is "good" or "bad"--what's "good" or "bad" is the way we use those words. Just like there is no "good" or "bad" language, only "good" or "bad" USES of language: good when used to express thoughts and ideas, or to communicate ideas, bad when used to hurt people or to control the way they think or behave.

Take, for example, the recent hullabaloo over the use of the "N" word--the word itself is nothing more than a corruption of the Latin word for the color black, but we have turned it into something we can use to denigrate one particular race of people. There are words used in just such a way to denigrate virtually all the races of people on this planet but no one is trying to ban any of those--I wonder why? I hate the word myself and have never used it, but I think the effort to ban the word is misguided as best--after all, it's just a word. It seems to me that what the people behind the proposed ban really want is to ban the ugly and hateful and hurtful feelings the word evokes, but simply removing the word from the language won't accomplish that--simply removing the word won't eliminate the thoughts and feelings the word is used to express and if people can't use that one word to express those thoughts and feelings, they'll just find or create another one, which makes the whole process of censoring the word as huge a waste of time as censoring any of the other words that express strong--particularly negative--emotions.

We NEED words that shock our sensibilities, that make us angry, because human beings are emotional creatures and without words that evoke strong emotions and provoke us into actually examining our cherished beliefs and ideals, we tend to fall into a dangerous complacency regarding those beliefs and ideals until they become set in stone and hope for any progress in our emotional, intellectual or spiritual development wastes away. Without words that challenge us to examine ourselves and the "truths" we hold, we devolve into a mass of conformity devoid of even the merest spark of brilliance which could lift humanity out of it's stagnant mediocrity. Complacent people are easy to control, order is easy to enforce, and the authorities don't have to do much of anything other than "ride herd," which is the way they want it--but would you really want to live in such a world? A world of grays rather than one of blacks and whites and bright rainbow colors? A world with no art because every expression of inspiration, regardless of the medium, will eventually offend someone and must therefore be censored until it loses the very essence of the original inspiration? Ever spend much time in a room where everything was the exact same color--say a room that was all white, from the floor to the ceiling and everything in between? How long do you think it would take to go insane, simply from the lack of anything to contrast with the mind-numbing sameness? Or from listening to a voice droning on and on without ever saying anything that catches your ear and makes you really LISTEN to and THINK ABOUT what the voice is saying?

And say these people succeed in their efforts to ban this one word--what would the consequence be? Would the libraries have to purge their shelves of anything containing that one word? Would publishers have to refuse works submitted to them if they happen to contain that one word--even if it's only used once--or filmmakers? And what's next? The precedent will have been set--what's to stop them from removing any word or expression of art that makes us uncomfortable or provokes original thought? No matter how well intentioned the effort is, ultimately the result is the same.