In my mind, censorship is not wrong, but not right either. All the world is contained in the pages of books. To quote my grandmother: "Books are how a person learns about the world they are in." Withholding extremely violent books from 7 year olds simply means that the children aren't ready to enter that part of the world yet. Withholding extremely violent books from 17 and 18 year olds is unwise. By that time, they are ready to deal with the violence--indeed they see it on the news and read it in the papers. Withholding a book about witchcraft from a 6 year old simply means that they aren't ready to read and accept and make their own decisions. Withholding the same book from a 17 or 18 year old is a sorry attempt at sheltering them from a world of different ideas that they have already entered.
Say a school withholds Tolkien's books from everyone under age 7 (just say that the reading level would be generally good enough to understand Tolkien at this age) for the reason of violence. The young children may not be ready to deal with the violence prevented. Banning Tolkien to 14-18 year olds for the same
exact reason. By this time, these people will most likely be able to handle violence much easier.
To bring this to come type of conclusion: The ones who ban the books, etc. should take into consideration the age and world experience of the people they are withholding the books from.
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In general, the public is pretty much mindless.
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Clear proof would be the brainwashing that leads most Americans to believe that they are invincable and/or the greatest people on the face of the earth...but let's not get into that here. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]
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I am told by my 11-year old son that in his (inner city) school Harry Potter is viewed as "babyish", Lord of The Rings is "too over the top", but that The Matrix is ultimately cool.
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That seems to be widely accepted. My eleven-year-old sisters said the same thing not too long ago. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]