Censorship And Technology In Fahrenheit 451

As a part of our Socratic seminar, we talked about the importance of censorship and technology and their role in the book Fahrenheit 451. Whether it is the topic of censorship or technology, there are many benefits and drawbacks to using them.

My article, “Despite Iran’s Efforts to Block Internet, Technology Has Helped Fuel Outrage”, goes into the details of the censorship and its results of it. Censorship plays a key role in this situation as it gives the government the power to control the population. In there any situation, there is always a light and dark side to it and with censorship, we are able to prevent violence and access to dangerous information. Censorship allows for a unanimous opinion which can strengthen the country and

They first talk about the burning of any book that possesses knowledge when it states, “He strode in a swarm of fireflies…While the books went up in sparkling whirls and blew away on a wind turned dark with burning.”(1) The job of Firefighters in this book is to burn books which in turn, allows people to stay ignorant of their reality. Undoubtedly, the government can control and manipulate the truth to fit the government’s own purpose or benefit. A clear example is when Beatty read from the rulebook stating, “Established, 1790, to burn English-influenced books in the Colonies. First Fireman: Benjamin Franklin.”(32) This piece of information justifies the firefighter’s acts of burning books and homes. From this, you can see that the government has changed the history inside books to influence its people in believing its lies which promote the further destruction of information. A really important point the author, Ray Bradbury, mentioned was “Picture it. Nineteenth-century man with his horses, dogs, carts, slow motion. Then, in the twentieth century, speed up your camera. Books cut shorter. Condensations. Digests, Tabloids.”(52) As a matter of fact, the citizens are the ones driving these changes toward censorship. The government simply took advantage of the situation the citizens accepted. When knowledge and information are gone, the government can brainwash people and abuse its powers over its citizens. The people stay in a trance-like state, never coming to the realization of the government’s