Censorship / Almost Insanity in the News

How often has the decry to censor something in the immediate viewing, listening, or reading expressions of some people been enough to promote action against these sensory attributes.  Those persons who find anything offensive to their religious, political, of personal affiliations will always attempt to put asunder the segments of what they presume evil and denounce those who promote the evils. 

“The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a man who sowed good seed in his field.  While everyone was asleep his enemy came and sowed weeds all through the wheat and then went off.  When the crop grew and bore fruit, the weeds appeared as well.  The slaves of the householder came to him and said, “Master, did you not sow good seed in your field?  Where have the weeds come from?  He answered, “An enemy has done this.”  His slaves said to him, “Do you want us to to go and pull up the weeds?”  He replied, “No”  If you pull up the weeds you might uproot the wheat along with them.”  (Mt. 13: 24 - 29).

This parable may well show that when someone decides certain entities are creeping into their camp they feel a threat has arisen and unless they eliminate them their significance may become null and void. 

That appears to be why recently in political arenas attempts to silence some whistleblowers’ comments or revelations have become the quest of those who are the powers that be. 

We must be careful when some insist that this or that expression may be too influencing for certain others in our society.  Understandably we need to protect our children from the violence or sensuality on the internet and/or electronic games.  But that must be something a parent or legal guardian has the obligation to enforce.  This is where discretion becomes the number one criterion for those protecting children under their charge.

Allowing or seeking the government to procure censors on certain aspects can never be the rule.  Look at some examples from past history where those in authority did sensor or eliminate what threatened them:

1.  The Chinese emperor Shih Huang Ti is said too have buried alive 460 Confucian scholars to control the writing history in his time.  In 212 BC he burned all the books in his kingdom, retaining only a single copy of each for the Royal Library - and those were destroyed before his death.  With all previous historical records destroyed, he thought history could be said to begin with him.  (259 - 210 BC).

2.  The Roman emperor Caligula opposed the reading of The Odyssey by Homer, written more than 300 years before.  He thought the epic poem was dangerous because it expressed Greek ideas of freedom.  (AD 35).

3.  Savonarola, a Florentine religious fanatic with a large following, was one of the most notorious and powerful of all sensors.  In these years, he instigated “great bonfires of the vanities” which destroyed books and paintings by some of the greatest artists of Florence.  He persuaded the artists themselves to bring their works, including drawings of nudes, to the bonfires.  Some poets decided they should no longer write in verse because they were persuaded that their lines were wicked and impure.  Popular songs were denounced, and some turned into hymns with new pious lyrics.  Ironically, in May of 1498 another great bonfire was lit; this time under Savonarola who hung from a cross.  With him were burned all his writings, sermons, essays, and pamphlets.  (AD 1497 - 1498). 

4.  Six thousand copies of William Tyndall’s English translation of the New Testament were printed in Cologne, Germany, and smuggled into England - and then burned by the English church.  Church authorities were determined that the bible would be available only in Latin.  (AD 1525).

5.  A series of massive bonfires in Nazi Germany burned thousands of books written by Jews, communists, and others.  Included were the works of John Dos Passos, Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, Ernest Hemingway, Helen Keller, Jack London, Thomas Mann, Karl Marx, Erich Remarque, Upton Sinclair, Stalin, and Leon Trotsky.  (AD 1933).

6.  American publishers expressed outrage over news that a Washington bookstore was ordered to turn over records of Monica Lewinsky’s book purchases to independent counsel Kenneth Starr.  Lewinsky is the former White House intern with whom President Clinton had what he later termed an “inappropriate relationship.”  The Association of American Publishers declared:  “I don’t think the American people could find anything more alien to our way of life or repugnant to the Bill of Rights than government intrusion into what we think and what we read.  I would suggest Mr. Starr give some thought to his own reading list.  Maybe it’s time for him to reread the First Amendment.”  (AD 1998).

Using the parable of the weeds one can see that if a law is promulgated to eliminate what those in power deem as irreligious, immoral, or determined by others as infringing on their rights, removing them may also give authority to those in power to eliminate books such as the Holy Bible.  Be careful what you ask for.  

Ralph B. Hathaway, Summer 2020