Taurangi 451, By Ray Bradbury

The bliss of ignorance becomes far and few when only the privileged enjoy that luxury while the oppressed suffer with the knowledge the government attempts to conceal. Prominent in the novel “ Taurangi 451” by Ray Bradbury, and even more so in the physical world: corrupt governments attempt to cloak the undesirable aspects of society through the censorship of mass media. In “ Taurang 451” Guy Montag realizes how his own government unrightfully burns books and the holders of these books to destroy intellectualism within society, ridding citizens of free, expressive thought. Therefore, the government does not have the moral obligation to censor mass media with a means to protect its citizens as the government can propagate misleading information,

This proves how governments cannot be a soul source of information as they evidently can be the propagators of misinformation and false pretenses. This is not done just by mistake, but also intentionally to keep up the government’s appearance of reliability and to give them the right to censor non-governmental media with the reasoning that the government is the only source of honest information. Both real world government officials and the government officials in “ Taurus 451” have demonstrated a lack of hesitation while spreading ideas and notions that are falsified or unreliable, this proves the necessity of having multiple sources of information instead of the sole government to attain one’s news and information from. Often, the spread of this misinformation is a cause of another prominent issue that derives from censorship, that being the silencing of voices opposing the government. Moreover, corrupt governments often conceal and mask the voices that threaten the sanctity of the blissfully privileged, and often that threatening voice derives from an oppressed minority.

However, the government does not have the responsibility to police what other citizens should or should not listen to as “the right to hear the speech of others is pro­tected by the First Amendment.” (Samples), deeming that act of censorship as unconstitutional. The responsibility to filter through one's media for offensive content falls on the user and not a federal authority which does not know what every citizen deems controversial or not. Therefore, “speech by and for social media users may be presumed to be free of government regulation” (Samples) and would only be counterintuitive for the government to perform as what is offensive is a relative subject. Clearly, media censorship for the purpose of protecting citizens is not a government responsibility as the government being the reviser of media can lead to the mass diffusion of misinformation, as well as lead to the systematic oppression of undesirable citizens. Ultimately, citizens must take the initiative as independent thinkers to filter the media they consume instead of relying on the government to solve their personal problems for