The Censorship of Art
The Censorship of ArtBy: Phoenix Miklus
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The Censorship of Art Things are heating up in America. People are protesting outside of the movie theaters, concerts, and book and record stores of this great nation everywhere. What is all the fuss about? Censorship, Government officials and raving mad protesters alike have been trying to stop the expressive creativity in everything from Marilyn Manson to Mark Twain. One of the biggest shake-ups happened in museums all over the world recently that would have made Michelangelo and DiVinchi�s hair stand on end. In the Constitution of the United States, the First Amendment guarantees freedom of speech, religion, press, the right to assemble and to petition the government; the Ninth Amendment says, �The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people�. So it seems one cannot use any of the other rights to quell the rights of an individual or group. Then why is the government trying to censor literature, movies, music and art? All of the world�s modern society has become desensitized and easily trainable. Therefore society has come to accept the ideals, morals, and values driven into the psyche by the dominant forces in the nation: the Government and the Church. By quieting the objective voice these two institutions stand in the lead and stay in control. One might assume that the blood-sucking politicians have nothing better to do than to look for things that offend any one major group of people (i.e. the church) to obtain votes. In this manner the government is becoming more and more controlling and artistic censorship is just another way to maintain control. Things were not always so. Government had very little to say about censoring anything. Was it not only three decades ago that as one nation the population was united by the ideals of peace love, and harmony? As an art student in the 60�s era, Robert Mansfield states in his article, Artistic Freedom: government challenge �the first amendment was seldom an issue of concern�In fact it seemed that boundaries of expression were governed only by individual creative ability intellect and imagination�. Where have these ideals gone? It seems in recent years they have disappeared with the freedom of thought. Why is it so important to some people not to offend? It seems the people easily offended are the ones deciding what is acceptable for the population. �Well about a decade ago when the nation debated about funding controversial art,� writes John Cloud of TIME magazine, �in the capital of crude, few people consider rude art a problem.� Articles ranging in titles from �New York�s Art Attack� to �Creative Chaos� are appearing in TIME and other numerous front-page materials across the country. In H.G. Hovagimyan�s TOKARTOK: The Censorship of Art, he states: �Artists are often asked to change parts of their works to conform to the publics morality. This has been going on since the Pope asked Michelangelo to...
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