Censorship, simply put, is controlling the information and the ideas that are being circulated within a society. The truth about censorship is that it has truly been a hallmark for dictatorship all throughout history. Censorship is achieved in many ways, including through examining plays, books, television, films, news reports, radio programs and all other forms of communication in order to alter or otherwise suppress any ideas that were determined to be offensive or objectionable. ~MBCnet.org
To limit the press is to insult a nation; to prohibit reading.....is to declare the inhabitants to be either fools or slaves.
~Claude-Adrien Helvétius
Censorship is the tool of those who have the need to hide actualities from themselves and others. Their fear is only their inability to face what is real. ~Charles Bukowski
I've been the victim of a campaign of vicious harassment and intimidation to stop me from opening an independent gallery in Brick Lane, East London showing visionary fine painting by oldskool London train writers as well as straight-up graff and visionary art.
I had a notice pinned to my wall saying 'Art gallery not needed' then a car was driven at me at top speed outside our intended gallery one night. It nearly ran me over...that's when I knew it was serious. In this age of corruption and decadence, outsider and street art is clung on to as one of the last vestiges of purity, it is vital that it remains peoples free will to paint, show and enjoy which art they so choose, and not be subject to censorship.
~Elate LSD Issue 6
Never has tyranny and censorship been such a burden to art than when shouldered beneath the clear blue skies and fluttering false flags of anarcho-meritocracy and liberty.
~Elate LSD Issue 7 May 2011
If a company's reason-to-be is to make and increase profits, ideals such as freedom of expression and the free sharing of ideas, are by nature, a conflict with the aim of the business entity. Some ideas and some forms of expression will eventually conflict with the character, desires, and motives of the company. With the power to dictate the flow of information to some extent, why wouldn't a business direct that content to suit its own needs?
How does one know what information is missing, if it is missing? How does one know what art they are not being exposed to, if they are not exposed to it?
..the solution is as simple as cultivating awareness. Seek knowledge, discover art, listen to alternative voices. There is the freedom to choose an independent source, rather than the source that is overshadowed by corporate interests.
In our modern capitalist society, there may be many interests trying to cultivate public awareness as a means to financial gain, but accessing a wealth of art, inspiration, and information is possible.
~What is Corporate Censorship? Defining Censorship in Modern Society
All censorships exist to prevent anyone from challenging current conceptions and existing institutions.
All progress is initiated by challenging current conceptions, and executed by supplanting existing institutions. Consequently, the first condition of progress is the removal of all censorships. There is the whole case against censorships in a nutshell. - ~George Bernard Shaw
We get on the bandwagon in all sorts of ways - you know minor ways and major ways ....which isn't censorship exactly, it was something sort of uglier in a way. ~Kathy Acker
We live in oppressive times. We have, as a nation, become our own thought police; but instead of calling the process by which we limit our expression of dissent and wonder "censorship," we call it "concern for commercial viability. ~David Mamet
The test of democracy is freedom of criticism. ~David Ben-Gurion
In the long run of history, the censor and inquisitor have always lost. The only weapon against bad ideas is better ideas. ~Anthony Witney Griswald
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