Book Banning

Nazi party at a mass book burning.

         Ever since the invention of the printing press, the practice of burning books to censor literature became symbolic of censorship and information control. Forty years after the printing press was invented in Germany, the country's first official censorship office opened to suppress what religious authorities labeled "dangerous publications."

         In the United States, the first book ban happened in Springfield, Mass in 1650. Stranglely, it was done by the Puritans, who had fled England to escape religious persecution, yet they condemned and confiscated a religious text written by one of their own members and had it burned in a public demonstration in the center of town.

         Censorship and book bans were often supported at the national level in the United States. Federal laws, such as the Comstock Law of 1873, made it a crime to distribute "obscene, lewd, and/or lascivious" materials through the mail. The banning, and often burning, of books continued until the early 1920s when existing standards were challenged. The tide turned against national laws and judgments during the 1930s as Americans witnessed the disturbing activities in Nazi Germany surrounding censorship and mass book burnings.

Net Neutrality




The worst thing about censorship is blablabla.

             Vint Cerf, Google's head net-neutrality supporter says that we need an effective nationalization of the Internet, saying, "incentives could be provided that would render the Internet more like the public road system ... not owned by the private sector," so it becomes "essentially open to all."

           However, the internet right now, works much better, and it will improve much faster without government involvement.  With government involvement, all we would get is corruption and more government control over us. Not to mention that censorship will follow.

           Freedom of speech will give way to being politically correct. With government involvement, the internet will likely be subject to political manipulation and even if it was with good intentions, it may shut down our only real forum of free speech.

           Supporters of network neutrality won't admit to it. They will probably tell you that network neutrality will safeguard your freedoms. Funny enough, one of the ways they scare people is by using the idea that phone and cable companies may start blocking access to political Web sites. In reality though, in a world with a competitive market; where buyers can take their business elsewhere, this is very unlikely. However, in a goverment-run monoply, this is very possible.

Censorship in the United States

Is it wrong to say certain things?

Here in the United States, we enjoy little amounts of censorship. However, not all forms of speech are protected under U.S. law. Cultural, social, or religious expression have the highest value in the eyes of the law, and government has to give a really good reason to limit or censor these things. Political speech in particular can't be limited unless it tells people to do illegal things. However, government agencies can limit the publication of or access to material that could compromise national security.