On Censorship

Mark Greathouse

(9/2021) Raise your hands, if you support free speech. Lots of hands. How about censorship? No hands up? So, why do we let censorship run amok in today’s America?

Censorship is suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. Such suppression of words, images, or ideas is the outcome of what some people deem objectionable, harmful, or sensitive per the imposition of their personal political or moral values. It’s often a tool wielded by private groups, like academia, social media, news media, publishers, and corporations. Censorship by the government is unconstitutional. Harry S. Truman noted, "Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear."

Censorship can be especially threatening by the manner of its enforcement. Banning books is old school. "Politically correct" language editing is ever-more-common. But "narcing" (snitching on neighbors) and "doxing" (publicly releasing personal information) should scare us all as personal privacy invasions abridging our First Amendment rights. Increasingly common today is "shadow banning," also called stealth banning, ghost banning, or comment ghosting. It’s the practice of blocking users or their content from an online community so users don’t realize they’ve been banned.

As to publishing, I believe stories told with straight-shooting honesty drive our culture. It’s why authors toil to ensure accuracy of words and phrases as well as cultural beliefs of eras in which their work is set. Intellectually honest authors don’t use alternative terms to avoid offending hyper-sensitive readers. Notably, "sensitivity readers" employed by major publishing houses are mostly inexperienced, ill-informed college grads not even permitted to interact with the authors whose work they review. Many authors now turn to smaller publishers or even self-publish so as to maintain creative integrity. Author Judy Blume in "Places I Never Meant To Be: Original Stories by Censored Writers" articulates a leading author fear, "In this age of censorship, I mourn the loss of books that will never be written, I mourn the voices that will be silenced--writers' voices, teachers' voices, students' voices--all because of fear. How many have resorted to self-censorship? How many are saying to themselves, ‘Nope ... can't write about that. Can't teach that book. Can't have that book in our collection. Can't let my student write that editorial in the school paper.’" Blume nailed a hard truth of what’s occurring in America today.

Censorship destroys stories and by extension a nation’s culture. We can’t sugar-coat the lexicon of past generations, can’t substitute present values for those of the past, without depriving readers of learning from that past. We dare not forget American philosopher George Santayana’s quote, "Those who forget history are condemned to repeat it." The French philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville noted, "The greatness of America lies not in being enlightened more than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults." Bottom line, we should not erase the past simply because it doesn’t fit someone’s present. It’s about intellectual honesty. Artificially imposed censorship offers naught but disastrous consequences.

But it’s not just authors subjected to censorship. If you are sitting in college classrooms, reading newspapers, posting on social media, and more, you’re inundated with censorship in all its ugliness. We dare not come to George Orwell’s 1984 horror, "Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture repainted, every street renamed, and building renamed, every date altered. And the process continues day by day…Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right."

Censorship, even if well-intended, disrespects the intelligence of the public. We cannot turn evil into good without a moral imperative, and morals in our nation are sorely lacking. As Laurie Halse Anderson notes, "Censorship is the child of fear, the father of ignorance, and the desperate weapon of fascists everywhere." Philosopher Carl Sagan warned, "[Censoring] knowledge, telling people what they must think and what ideas are impermissible, which lines of evidence may not be pursued, is the aperture to thought police, foolish and incompetent decision-making, and long-term decline."

Unbridled, uncensored truth is critically important to America. Famed poet Rudyard Kipling summed it well in his epic poem "Gods of the Copybook Headings" excerpted as follows:

"In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all, By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul; But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy, And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "If you don't work you die."

Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.

As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man There are only four things certain

since Social Progress began. That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,

And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire; And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins

When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins, As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn, The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!"

Kipling’s message is that most "progressivist" plans aren't new at all; they've been tried before and invariably brought disaster. In his epic "The Sixteen Satires" Roman poet Juvenal’s warns," "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? - Who will watch the watchers?" That phrase incapsulates a great public fear of just who is censoring.

What to do? "Big Five" publishers must be boycotted, academia opened to free debate without penalizing divergent views, news media reined in by audience pushback, social media losing Section 230 protections, corporations kicked in their pocketbooks, and government policed against abridgement of speech.

We tolerate speech we hate because one day our own speech may not be tolerated. At a recent western writers convention, I was struck by the widespread member concern over censorship by publishers. There was a general commitment to fighting back. I also attended a "Rally Against Censorship" event in Texas sponsored by my publisher. It’s our duty to fight censorship, to protect free speech.

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