The New Generation Society

James Gill

James Gill, a first year history undergraduate at York, looks at what he feels is the demonising and censoring of mainstream entertainers

Censorship – that lovely C word that is supposed to keep us safe and rational – or does it? During the past few years, segments of society have had a habit of putting this wonderful C word into action, in effect creating a homely, reasonable community where no harm can be done. And all for a price worth paying – not seeing violent and sexual images on the big screen, paper page or pixellated on your television set. But what do we take ourselves for, morons?? Morons who cannot distinguish between right and wrong, fact and fiction and pure entertainment against hard-hitting observations? As a new generation, we must have access to these choices if we are to become wiser and more enlightened in our views and actions.

The most common excuse for all this editing, splicing and shoving-under-the-carpet of all these forms of media is that the violence within will make monsters out of us; that the scenes of drug addiction and sexual promiscuity will somehow burn the compassionate fabric of wholesome values that we hold dear. However, most of the material which the elite powers – whether they are government or regulatory censorship boards – seek to edit and delete does not seem to encourage violence, drug addiction or sexual activity at all. On the contrary, they appear to be valuable commentaries on the dark foibles of human nature and the inherent negative condition we carry with us, which surely must be examined and followed for all to see how we can better ourselves.

I will use examples from various media – music, film and video game – to demonstrate the necessity to limit clarion calls for censorship at all hours and items.

Film has been the most common victim of this culture of banning or restricting. Movies are forms of entertainment not designed to encourage people into disturbing or grotesque action, rather they are made for people’s enjoyment and, in some cases, force them to think about the film’s observations. Examples of fun movies as strict forms of entertainment are The Dark Knight and Wanted – both are comic book adaptations with appropriate age ratings respectively. However, even as people are used to judge for themselves, there have been voices in the midst calling for restrictions amongst ‘knife crime’ in The Dark Knight and ‘glamorous guns’ in Wanted. For films clearly aimed at an older audience and with clear elements of fantasy, can we trust ourselves watching pictures in fairness where there is no risk of unnecessary public outcry? We hope so.

Even when a film does seem to reflect reality or question a flaw in our human behaviour and activity, the big guns can’t seem to keep their chin up and take it as it is. Rather they hide behind the notion that it must not be seen for fear it might damage society. This response has been typical to films such as Natural Born Killers (a satire on a media which fuels a violence-based culture), A Clockwork Orange (a glance at the world we might become along with increasingly authoritarian government powers), Do the Right Thing (one day of escalating racial tensions) and Trainspotting (a vicious peek at the lives of soulless drug addicts). When one watches these movies, they are provoked to think about the sensitive themes explored in the films, as well being simultaneously entertained. The respective directors – in this case Oliver Stone, Stanley Kubrick, Spike Lee and Danny Boyle – are not by nature horrible souls, rather keen observers of human problems – racism, drug addiction and violent impulses – often offering constructive criticism to alleviate them. And yet figures such as right-wing Senator Bob Dole dismissed Trainspotting as encouraging drug-addiction and Natural Born Killers as advocating bloodthirsty killing sprees – while advocating a repeal of a law restricting gun ownership. Dole didn’t even see Trainspotting when it was released! Not to mention the many of similar views that see Lee’s Do the Right Thing as a call to black people to ‘riot’!! Daring to criticise a film with criticism on the edge of racism itself, they hardly take notice of the racial problems of the USA, rather focusing on the fantasising, navel-gazing Religious Right! Who’s the moralist now?

This madness even falls into the category of music, where some artists seek to express the hardships of life and some simply tell stories (similar to ones told in film and literature). Although this seems a simple matter, it attracts the deceitful response of people who are perpetrators of real violence chastising imaginary violence. The case study in this case is NWA’s Straight Outta Compton – a graphic portrayal of ghetto life for the ears – and yet is castigated by the right-wing political establishment in the USA, who support real wars and violence such as the Gulf War rather than listen to the domestic urban problems expressed through music.

The modern video-game is not even safe from this epidemic. Canis Canem Edit (aka Bully) a game with a clear 15 rating has been declared by Keith Vaz MP as a danger to youth. How? Because it features a simulated version of school antics young adults see in the playground and on Grange Hill and in teen comedies such as bullying and mischievous pranks? Considering these ‘dangerous’ antics take place all around us even in the era of Grange Hill and real school life prior to the game’s release, shouldn’t we focus on the root of the why the young are committing such antics? Social decay and peer pressure rather than pixels?

For too long, the general public has been taken for idiots with regards to what we can or can’t play, listen to or watch. Rather than focus on the urban, social, political and economic problems that grope the unfortunate in real life, some continue to navel-gaze and focus on the harmless forms of media which keep us thinking and entertained.