Censorship: A Restriction on Intellectual Thought “Every minority, be it Baptist / Unitarian, Irish / Italian / Octogenarian / Zen Buddhist… feel it has the will, the right, the duty to douse the kerosene, light the fuse(Bradbury 2).” Similar to Ray Bradbury’s notions from his “Coda” on Fahrenheit 451, controversial opinions and novel ideas are sometimes engulfed in the animosity and intolerance of minorities who deem it in their best interest to shield any opposing ideology. One, moreover, might wonder how this intolerance might have originated. Well, from the desire to remove or conceal any offensive materials, special interest groups and parents of young children have attempted to ban or edit books with good intentions, albeit with detrimental effects in the long run. Of course, these entities may think they have the people’s best interests in mind, but in reality, they completely undermine the intellectual freedom one can possess. In summary, this phenomenon is …show more content…
In Ray Bradbury’s “Coda” from the book Fahrenheit 451, discussed is how digression leads to new knowledge and how removing the philosophical sides of authors would leave nothing but dry bones(Bradbury 2). A significant aspect of his sayings is that, to develop knowledge or ingenuity, digression, or the straying from conventional ideas must take place. Implied here, the danger of censorship in society is that it avoids all digression in intellectual thought, therefore resulting in a deficiency of novel ideas. One repercussion of this deficiency would be that it spurs the homogenization and mellowing of the intuition of society. In turn, the diversity of beliefs and philosophies would be undermined, promoting the masses to rid of critical thought and observations. In consequence, diversity in society would cease to exist, constraining human intellectual