Art for Politics Sake: Art Censorship in Communist China, And The United States.
We want one single, grand lie which will be believed by everybody - including the rulers, ideally, but failing that the rest of the city.
-Plato from his Republic.
Today if an average American was asked if he or she believed that censorship was an important part of the perfect state, they would not only answer "no" but they would say that the perfect state must have no form of censorship in order for it's people to be happy. The average person believes also, that any true philosopher would also believe firmly in the free expression of ideas. However, that is not the perfect republic outlined in Plato's The Republic. .
Though Plato was a champion of rational thought, he made clear statements that popular forms of art and poetry must be interoperated in a way that is in the best interest of the state more specifically its guardians. In book two 380a he says that in the case of a story such as the Trojan war, the poet must say that the events are either not the actions of god, or must say that they are the actions in "more or less the sort of explanation we are looking for at the moment.".
Plato's perfect state was by no means a state that reflected our contemporary views of freedom of expression. Much like Thomas Moores Utopia, Plato's state was highly regulated and strictly controlled. Many of his plans for the different classes, specifically the "guardian class" were communistic. For the leaders, Plato wanted communal living and even communal spouses. He did not trust any people to be completely virtuous, so he believed the government must control anything that could possibly lead to corruption.
Another, more modern philosopher also had a similar view to censorship, specifically in the visual arts. His name was Mao. Before the Maoist revolution, the visual arts were not given as much meaning as the written word.
Censorship in music has been a major problem plaguing America since the early nineteen forties. ... His experience with censorship resulted in his extreme dislike of any form of excluding and/or labeling a musicians" art. ... Is this not America? This is not China! ... So all you right-wingers, left-wingers, bigots, Communists, There IS a place for you in this world! ...
There were hardly any African Americans on the popular music scene. ... McCarthy gained control during the Cold War, accusing anyone and everyone of being a communist menace. ... Vice President Spiro Agnew believed that "music glorified drug use," and that the "drug culture" was propagated by pop, and publicly advocated song censorship. Art Linkletter, a TV personality in the 1960s asserted that half of the popular records were "concerned with secret messages to teenagers to drop out, turn on, and groove with chemicals," and also publicly advocated censorship and blacklisting. A popular belief...
Most people who have studied freedom of the press agree that one of its fundamental conditions in America is the doctorine of no prior restraint of publication. ... Communist theory will the our focus. ... This is not so in countries like Cuba, China and North Korea. ... Songs have to go through the censorship board. ... Pornography can be perceived as art to some people. ...
No one wanted to take a chance on a novel about past, present of future censorship. Fahrenheit 451 is a clear reaction to the McCarthy era in which it was written; the near future book burning society is a logical projection of the world of 1950's middle class America. ...