Can Censorship Ever Be Justified in a Community?

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Look at the words in the image above. They’re pretty negative, aren’t they? I’m sure most of us would agree that it’s not appropriate to apply these words to another human bring – words like “worthless,” “defective,” or “useless.” But is it ever OK to ban words like these? Should we rely on restricting their use in order prevent people getting hurt? More importantly, does such soft censorship achieve that goal of preventing hurt feelings? Does it ever serve to promote a sense of community, or help people get along better? I can remember when my oldest daughter was maybe six years old, we were at a Sparks meeting when one of the little girls got frustrated with the craft we were doing. She dropped her scissors on the table and declared, “This is stupid!” And immediately the girl across from her looked up in shock. “That’s a bad word!” said she. “You’re not allowed to say that.” And she really meant it! Her teachers had told the kids that it was never OK to say “stupid.” Not that they shouldn’t call each other names, or that they should never call themselves stupid. Instead they had imposed a complete ban on a word that most of us would probably say is overused and vague, but not horribly offensive. It made me wonder how many other words had been banned in that teacher’s classroom. And how many books, ideas, emotions and viewpoints were similarly rejected because one adult felt they were somehow inappropriate for her students. Censorship is, to me, much more offensive than hearing the word “stupid.” It’s even more offensive than hearing hateful words applied to me or another human being. Because by trying to be politically correct, we often end up silencing someone who is vulnerable and who very much needs to be heard. That little girl I spoke of didn’t really think the art project was stupid. If she had, she wouldn’t have been so upset. In fact she probably wanted to make the craft very much, and was feeling embarrassed because she was the only one who seemed to be having trouble following the instructions for making it. She didn’t feel safe saying that, though. And apparently she didn’t feel safe saying that she needed help. So instead she made a big show of condemning the project. It was her way of getting some attention from the adults present, in hopes that someone would help her finish the craft, and help her make it look the way she wanted it to look. Had we enforced the same rules as that teacher, this child’s need would have been overshadowed by some form of discipline for using a forbidden word. Instead of seeing beyond the outburst to the reason it happened, we would have punished a child who didn’t feel strong enough to ask for help. We would have placed all the focus on a single word, rather than on the emotions that gave rise to its use. We would have failed that child. Sure, rules of good conduct are important in a community. When communicated using positive language, they do a pretty good job of helping people get along. But is it ever OK to ban specific words simply because they might be used in a hurtful way? Do we really want to justify that kind of censorship? [image: johnhain/Pixabay/CC0]