The Mail VIOLENCE AND CENSORSHIP

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

I was distressed to read of the efforts of the Foundation to Improve Television to limit the content, through Federal court action, of programs seen on television before 10 p. m. Like all sincere efforts to protect others through censorship, the supporters of the Foundation would make all persons subsist on the fare of what is thought safe for those to be protected (they single out children; others single out the mentally ill or the potentially dangerous). Whether such protective efforts are directed toward violence. toward erotic materials, toward satiric portrayals of the church or the government or whatever, these efforts augur ill.

For those who want to censor some aspect of life think that they can eliminate only what they dislike and disapprove of. It is ironic to note that those who often complain when someone else, as for example Vice-President Agnew, attempts to censor the media, find themselves in virtually the same position as they attempt to censor. They would say that their motives are higher, and that they are right in their attempts to censor because of their knowledge, whereas the motives of others are lower and they are wrong in their attempts. But in my opinion, those who would censor for the best of motives have about the same effect as those who would censor for the worst of motives, for both invite further censorship; both suggest that the government ought to make for individuals the choice of what they see or read or hear; and in so doing, both, it seems to me, erode that freedom which is ultimately more important than eliminating, through government action, portrayals of the aspect of life they find offensive.

There is no doubt that many people are upset by what they or others read or see or hear. The solution, however, is not government action but social action and concerted efforts on their part to provide alternatives to what they now deplore. I would hope that individuals who prize freedom would address themselves to this important issue of choice vs. censorship and reconsider their support of the court action.