Censorship: Right or Wrong
Censorship in the world today makes absolutely no sense to me. Why should someone have the right to take away something that I find of use? Why is it right for entertainers such as Bob Dylan not being able to speak his mind through his music on national television (“Censorship: A Timeline” 10)? For instance, I want to go to the library and take out a book on abortion rights only to find out the library had censored all the books on abortion and would not have any in the future. Why is this allowed? When watching the movie Equilibrium, I didn’t like what I was seeing. The way that the Librium people were treated was just wrong. The Librium society kept its people in check by using suppression, by enforcing mandatory drug use, and by implementing the fear factor.
To be suppressed in that way just would make me not want to even live any longer.
I could not imagine ...view middle of the document...
Mandatory drug use was the way of life for the Librium people. The Librium’s were made to get through the day by stopping their daily routine when the alarm sounded, take out their Prozium, and give themselves a shot in the neck so they could continue their days. Could you imagine this type of life? This Prozium shot did not just pertain to adults. Children were also required to do the same. This drug blocked all their senses of emotion, and for that matter it blocked their thinking so that they could not even believe there was such a thing as emotion. This movie (Equilibrium) showed such vivid drug abuse that was just unbelievable to me.
The final straw in the Librium lifestyle would be the implementation of the fear factor for violating the “sense offender” (Equilibrium) law. To break this law meant you went straight to the combustion chamber. The rules were the same for everyone, adults and children alike. There was no other way to deal with sense offenders. The sense offenders didn’t get any rights, no trial, just put in a cell to wait their turn to be burnt to death. That in its self would make you keep people in check and follow the rules of the dictatorship.
Therefore I didn’t find this film (Equilibrium) of any value because of the way they instilled fear, used suppression to get the people to follow rules, and the mandatory injections of Prozium they were forced to give themselves each day. To go through life with no feelings, no emotions, is a life that is not worth living. To get up every day and do the same thing over and over is no way to live. I understand the concept of the film (Equilibrium) and the time frame as to which it was depicting but to even believe that something like that could ever happen is just unfathomable to me. I hope to never ever see anything like this again.
Works Cited
Equilibrium. Dir. Kurt Wimmer. Perf. Christian Bale, Sean Bean, Taye Diggs, William Fichtner, Matthew
Harbour, Angus MacFadden, Dominic Purcell, and Emily Watson. DVD. Dimension Films, 2002. Film.
George, Linda. “Censorship: A Timeline.” Pittsburgh Technical Institute. North Fayette Center,
Oakdale. 2009. Performance.