Thought Control Through History
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that everyone has the right to freedom of conscience, but what does that mean? Most issues of freedom of conscience involve the right to hold a certain religious belief, but that is not all that the right encompasses. Freedom of conscience is basically the right to believe what you believe and to think what you think. Because it is impossible to truly know what someone else is thinking, suppression of this right may seem difficult, however this freedom can be restricted; most often by censorship, book burning and propaganda.
Censorship, the control of information and ideas circulated within society, limits freedom of conscience by limiting access to information. The idea is that subversive thought cannot spread through society if no one has access to subversive materials. Throughout history this method of thought suppression has been the trademark of dictatorships, and in the 20th century, was achieved by examination and limitation of books, films, radio and television broadcast.
This fundamental right is indispensible in the modern world. Freedom of conscience is directly and inextricably linked to freedom of speech and freedom of religion, it is the right to think and express what one actually believes, it is the right to have an individual moral code and independence from a collective consciousness.
Ideas that break from the status quo, that may be unpopular or dissident are important. They instigated the enlightenment, the great schism, the industrial age and every important revolution and political and social change through history. As our world shrinks and becomes a more open, global market, the exchange of ideas will continue to grow in importance. In the wake of the invention of the Internet, it is becoming harder and harder for governments to suppress information.
In 210 BC the Qin dynasty emperor ordered all books not written by his historians burned so the public would only have access to one way of thinking. Sound familiar Nazi Germany, Maoist China, USSR, Iran? He ordered anyone talking about these books put to death along with their whole families and killed any scholars on the subject, however, some alternative histories still survived. If he could not keep his limited information under wraps, how can we imagine that in this age where information can travel across the world in under a second, we can keep it controlled? We can’t. It’s impossible. And furthermore, we shouldn’t.
