Suppose you are in the position of a parent. Would you allow your children to read any book or see any film they wanted to without first checking its content or finding out whether it is suitable for them? If your answer to the question is "yes,"then you are either extremely permissive or just plain irresponsible.If your answer is "no," then you are exercising your right as a parent to protect children from what you consider to be undesirable influences. In other words, by acting as a censor yourself, you are admitting that there is a strong case for censorship.
Perhaps you will say that children need protection and it is the parents" responsibility to provide it. But with adults, it is another thing. Of course many adults can decide what is good and what is bad, but notall of them can do so. Censorship is for the good of society as a whole, Just imagine what chaos there would be if we lived in a society without laws! Like the law, censorship contributesto the,common! good.
Moreover, when discussing censorship,we should not confine our attention to great masterpieces of genuine art, but should consider the vast numbers of publications and films which make up the bulk of the entertainment industry. When censorship laws are relaxed, unscrupulous people are given a licence to produce virtually anything in the name of "art", but actually are very far from being works of art.There is a tendency to equate "artistic" with "pornographic". The vast market for pornography would rapidly be exploited. One of the great things that censorship does is to prevent certain people from making fat profits by corrupting the minds of others.
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