...Censored

 I'm sorry for the hiatus my beloved readers had to experience, but by keeping a loose eye to my twitter feed you may have understood the true core of the problem ; writer's block. However, fear not, because another 'sensitive' topic has reached my ears and, relatively expectedly, agitated me in more than one way. As the post title may hypothesise, the censorship of press,publications & music, done so to "help" defenseless,folly teenagers is not what I consider the most rightful way to educate anyone, regardless of underage status or not.

"recurring beep sounds"

  The notion just discussed certainly came back to haunt me when I was reminded, in an other-wise respectable conversation, how inappropriate the things I read are. Before you presume that I read pervert-infused Japanese manga, I may have to inform you otherwise; what this vivid imagination deemed as not age-appropriate were the novels Lolita, The Catcher in the Rye and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Maybe my choice of literary companions do not deal with daisies, true love and weak,submissive heroines - and since when does a dose of reality beyond YA Fiction prove to be unrewarding?

 My showcase of teenage angst did not draw near and dear at that moment. I was , even further, disgusted by guides, all made by self-titled "responsible parents" that revolved around censoring what their children read. Popular choices of censorship included even the slightest of violence, sexual subject, homosexuality and skepticism over topics acknowledged as "truthful" by our tainted society. By typing "censoring teenagers" on my google bar-line I was overwhelmed with results, the first one to make its appearance being a report on teenagers' sentiments over censorship. My eyes scanned through the research, and initially focused on a set of lines that seem ultimately ironic;

  "although there are age classifications on videos but not on books, a number of teenagers said they had found staff in bookshops exercised more censorship than many video stores where staff often did not seem concerned about age restrictions. One teenager (approximately 13) had tried to buy a copy of Sugar Rush, but a shop assistant had refused to sell it to her: “the lady at the counter told me it wasn’t suitable for me”. Another (approximately 15) had not been allowed to buy a Stephen King novel."

 Is our society content with 10 year old boys purchasing endless copies of Call of Duty, and indulging in a pastime as uncreative as shooting off zombies, and so deeply-rootedly distorted that it glamourises war, yet somehow unable to contemplate , maybe due to fear,  that a 13 year old girl may want to expand her horizons on topics other than the ones handed to her as "proper"?

 I still have not presented the main reason why censorship is deemed as so restrictive in my opinion - and that is, because such an action is so reminiscent of dictatorship - and important ideas are constantly suppressed in order to banish any material thought of as heinous, blasphemous or too liberal - while simultaneously leaving the victims of such an action (teenagers in our case) uneducated, ignorant and roaming in a postulated utopia. I see this breed of censorship in the same light as the British Government's reluctance when it comes to supporting liberal & scientific studies - resulting to the largest percentage of university students studying something as blatantly useless as business - and thus creating citisens without an academic opinion on their government. (Listen up; In a, probably good-intentioned, attempt to "protect" your children from reality, you do not only protect them, but also separate their notions from their surroundings and create uncultivated, society-operated, narrow-minded little schmucks)

"Zut's whut daddy told me two buhliv. "

 Because I am aware of the human nature's adoration of examples, I am going to use myself as one, in an attempt to be convenient. The lack of censorship has made me who I am - and my parents' lack of begrudge when it comes to reading books provided me with a gateway to Ancient Greek Philosophy, Shakespeare, Feminist Studies, The God Delusion, Politics and so on, while still keeping my beloved physics on a priority seat. I've been acknowledged as quite a broad-minded, unprejudiced, knowledgable teenager , so I'd deem it quite safe to say that I've not been traumatised by severe subject matter. And probably, neither will you be.