Censorship In Fahrenheit 451

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“It was a pleasure to burn” (Bradbury 1), the opening line of Ray Bradbury’s acclaimed text Fahrenheit 451 foreshadows a dark and twisted world, one where society has devolved into complacency following mass government regulation of the media. This had led to a decrease in overall intelligence and the ability for humans to adequately operate on standard levels of rational thought. This high degree of control gives the government, authored by Bradbury, the agency to do as they please, even going as far as to erase accurate depictions of human history. Similarly, the article “History proves how dangerous it is to have the government regulate fake news” published by two experts on the effects of government control on free speech, Flemming Rose …show more content…

The emergence of technology has contributed greatly to this aspect of humanity, digital applications such as Instagram and TikTok offer creators the unique ability to shine light on topics that may be glazed over in the mainstream media, such as historical inequities and current human rights conflicts. Government should avoid the enforcement of information restriction policies due to their unethical and deceptive nature, and leave the flow of ideas up to the public in order to further the freedom of expression and steer clear of totalitarianism. Allowing the government to control and regulate the media gives them the discretionary power to silence opponents and prevent the flow of necessary democratic criticism from their constituents. Fahrenheit 451 exhibits a fictional world in which those key democratic elements of society have eroded into oblivion, replaced by an autocratic structure intent on silencing those that disagree with them. Montag is supposed to be one of the custodians of this policy, a fireman who burns ideas and thoughts for the greater good of …show more content…

The antitrust chief in “History proves how dangerous it is to have the government regulate fake news” felt “so overwhelmed by the amount of information on the internet that he.called for government regulation to fight fake news” (Rose and Mchangama 1). He desired to eliminate misinformation and ensure that the public remains confident in the information presented to them. However, despite claims that government regulation is a positive safety benefit to society, controlling the means of expression always lauds more power to the government and deprives the public of the fundamental right to freedom and access to information. The characters in Fahrenheit 451 described as fanatics intrigued Montag because “there must be something in books, things we can’t imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there” (Bradbury 32), that something being knowledge, and the human ability to form opinions and truths based on the consumption of media, literature, and information. The freedom to learn and know keeps society sane, and to deprive an individual or group of this ability is

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