Back in the middle of the last century, the wise Ray Bradbury wrote: "... if you do not want a person to be upset because of politics, do not give him the opportunity to see both sides of the issue. Let him see only one, and even better - not one ..." In fact, in this passage from his novel, 451 degrees Fahrenheit, the author described the whole purpose of censorship. What is it? Let's find out, and also consider the features of this phenomenon and its types.
What is censorship?
This term was formed by the Latin word censura, which translates as "exacting judgment, criticism." Nowadays, it means a system of supervision of all kinds of information, which is carried out by the state in order to prevent the spread of certain information on its territory.
By the way, bodies directly specializing in such control are also called "censorship."
Censorship story
When and where the idea for filtering information first appeared - history is silent. Which is quite natural, because this science is one of the first controlled by censorship. It is known that already in Ancient Greece and Rome, statesmen came to the conclusion that it was necessary to control the mood of citizens in order to prevent possible riots and maintain power in their own hands.
In this regard, lists of so-called “dangerous” books to be destroyed were compiled in almost all ancient powers. By the way, most often this category included works of art and poetry, although scholarships got to it.
Such traditions of combating unwanted knowledge were actively used in the first centuries of a new era, and after that they were successfully continued in the Middle Ages, and even survived to our times, however, they have become more veiled.
It is worth noting that almost always the authorities have the right hand in terms of censorship - it was some kind of religious institution. In the ancient era - priests, and with the advent of Christianity - popes, patriarchs and other spiritual "authorities". It was they who twisted the Holy Scriptures for the sake of political interests, imitated “signs”, cursed anyone who tried to say otherwise. In general, they did everything to turn the consciousness of society into plastic clay, from which it is possible to sculpt what is required.
Although modern society has made great advances in intellectual and cultural development, censorship is still a very successful way to control citizens, which has been successfully applied even in the most liberal states. Of course, this is done much more skillfully and imperceptibly than in past centuries, but the goals are the same.
Is censorship good or bad?
It would be a mistake to consider that the concept being studied carries only negative. In fact, in any society, censorship often plays the role of the guardian of its moral principles.
For example, if every director of a movie uncontrollably shows excessively explicit sex scenes or bloody murders in his creations, it is not a fact that after watching such a spectacle, some viewers will not experience a nervous breakdown or irreparable damage to their psyche.
Or, for example, if all the data about an epidemic in a village becomes known to its inhabitants, panic may occur that can lead to even more terrible consequences or even paralyze the life of the city. And most importantly, it will prevent doctors from doing their job and saving those who can still be helped.
And if you do not take it so globally, then the simplest phenomenon that censorship fights with is mat. Although everyone sometimes allows himself to use foul language, however, if profanity was not officially prohibited, it would be frightening to imagine what a modern language would look like. More precisely, the speech of its carriers.
That is, in theory, censorship is a kind of filter designed to protect citizens from information that they are not always able to correctly perceive. This is especially important in the case of children whom censorship protects from the problems of adulthood, giving them time to get stronger before they have to face them fully.
However, the main problem is the people who control this "filter". Indeed, much more often they use power not for the good, but in order to manipulate people and use information for personal gain.
Take the same epidemic case in a small town. Having learned about the situation, the country's leadership is sending a batch of vaccine to all hospitals in order to vaccinate all citizens for free. Having learned about this, the city authorities disseminate data that in private medical rooms you can get paid vaccinations against the disease. And information about the availability of a free vaccine is hushed up for several days so that as many citizens as possible have time to buy what they were supposed to be free.
Types of Censorship
There are several criteria by which different types of censorship are distinguished. This is most often associated with the information environment in which control is exercised:
- State.
- Political.
- Economic.
- Commercial.
- Corporate
- Ideological (spiritual).
- Moral.
- Pedagogical.
- Military (carried out during the country's participation in armed conflict).
Censorship is also divided into preliminary and subsequent.
The first prevents the dissemination of certain information at the stage of its occurrence. For example, preliminary censorship in literature is the authorities' control of the contents of books before they are published. A similar tradition flourished during the time of tsarist Russia.
Subsequent censorship is a way to stop the dissemination of data after it has been made public. It is less effective, because in this case the information is known to the public. However, anyone who confesses to knowing her is punished.
To better understand what the features of preliminary and subsequent censorship are, it is worth recalling the story of Alexander Radishchev and his "Travel from St. Petersburg to Moscow."
In this book, the author described the sad political and social situation in which the Russian Empire was at that time. However, talking about it openly was forbidden, because officially everything was fine in the empire and all the inhabitants were happy with the reign of Catherine II (as is often shown in some cheap pseudo-historical series). Despite the possible punishment, Radishchev wrote his "Journey ...", but he designed it in the form of travel notes about different settlements that meet between the two capitals.
In theory, preliminary censorship should stop publication. But the checking officer was too lazy to read the contents and missed "Journey ..." in print.
And then subsequent censorship (punitive) came into play. Learning about the true content of Radishchev’s work, books were banned, all found copies were destroyed, and the author himself was exiled to Siberia.
True, this did not help much, because, despite the ban, the entire cultural elite secretly read "Journey ..." and made handwritten copies of it.
Ways to circumvent censorship
As is clear from the example of Radishchev, censorship is not omnipotent. And as long as it exists, there are dodgers who can get around it.
The most common - 2 ways:
- The use of Aesopian language. Its essence is to covertly write about exciting problems, using allegory or even some kind of verbal code that only a select few understand.
- Dissemination of information through other sources. During tough literary censorship in tsarist Russia, most seditious works were published abroad, where laws are more liberal. And later, books were secretly imported into the country and distributed. By the way, with the advent of the Internet, circumventing censorship has become much easier. After all, you can always find (or create) a site on which you can share your forbidden knowledge.