Censorship

A person in my life censors.  She censors me, she censors others, she censors her children.  They have to run to her often to be sure they aren't saying, or about to say, anything on the proscribed list.  I find it awful.  Probably, God-awful!

Granted, too much running off at the mouth without any thought is a waste of good air and eardrum vibration, but it seems much better than censorship.  Topics that are 'off limits' are usually the ones that would be the most useful to consider.  Add to that, censorship generally doesn't work.

Try this:  Set your timer, maybe on the kitchen stove, or on your iPad, for 5 minutes.  Now, Do NOT think about the color red for the next five minutes.  Concentrate.  DO NOT THINK ABOUT THE COLOR RED!

Don't come back to this until your time has gone off after 5 minutes. 

Were you able to NOT THINK about the color RED for five minutes? 

Hence the first problem of censorship:  the harder you censor the more people want to, or must, think about what is being censored .  Oh, you can do the Chinese or Iranian thing and punish people horribly for violating censorship laws -- but once people know what is going on, their curiosity is piqued as well and more people want to know about what is being censored.  It may take awhile, but it happens.

One kind of censorship works, at least for awhile.  A person come to believe that she or he is not ready for certain kinds of reading, viewing or exploring.  She or he self-censors.  She or he gives the self time to grow and learn and ripen before exploring that particular subject.  I know people who self-censor in a particular area for their entire lives.  "Not for me," they say, and that's the end of it. 

What do you think about censorship?  What do you think about self-censorship?  Leave a comment and let us know.