Censorship_(Susan_B_Anthony,_Inherit_the_Wind,_Pauline_Hanson)

Censorship is a term that is heavily abused throughout society. Stanley Kramer’s film ‘inherit the wind’ in 1960, Susan b. Anthony’s ‘are women persons’ speech in 1873 and Pauline Hanson’s maiden speech to parliament in 1996 address the fundamental issues of censorship that saturate our society. Censorship restricted society from forming ideologies that force us to think inside a box labelled ‘morally acceptable’. The inept capability of citizens to make their own opinion on a law or their rights rather than suscepting to the reigning propaganda through clever language techniques such as rhetoric and alliteration is what Susan, Pauline and Stanley were trying to portray, - they were thinking outside the box. PROPAGANDA: Pauline Hanson’s maiden speech to parliament in 1996 was heavily controversial due to her strong propaganda on racial equity within the Australian culture. Hanson’s fluent use of jargon and colloquialism becomes evident throughout the text. Things like “wake up Australia, before its too late” and when she borrows the quote “ give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. Teach a man how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime”. This is insinuating that aboriginals have it too easy and she believes that they should have to work just as hard as we did. Hansen also states “of coarse I will be called racist but, if I can invite whom I want into my home then I should have the right to say who comes into my country”. Inferring that she’s claiming ownership over our country and it should be entirely her decision as to whom is allowed into our country. Similarly, in Stanley Kramer’s ‘Inherit the wind’ Matt Brady, the prosecutor for Bertram Cates shows strong insinuitive language all throughout the text, an example is when he says that he has “been to their cities and (I have) seen the altars upon which they sacrifice the futures of their children to the gods of science. And what are their rewards' Confusion and self-destruction. New ways to kill each other in wars. I tell you gentlemen the way of science is the way of darkness”. Propaganda is made further evident when Rachel; the daughter of the reverend is damned by her own father for standing up for Bertram Cates, she cried “He damned me, my own father damned me to hell”. Also, alliterative signs like “doomsday for Darwin” and “Cates: the devils disciple”; along with the song “give me that old time religion” in the background, subliminally suggest that anything other than Christianity is evil and enforce propaganda on that being the only practical religion. These texts show that censorship is not only affecting the individual, though the whole society as well. RHETORIC: In Susan b. Anthony’s speech “are women persons”, the rhetoric question compelled people to think about women. For a woman cannot be denied the fact that she is a woman, and she is a person. Although the message behind the rhetoric question is the purpose of her speech, ______ Also, Pauline was ‘fed up with being told, “this is our land”’, questioning ‘well, where the hell am I meant to go'’ She clearly states using rhetoric speech that she demands equal rights for all. Which comparably is also what Susan is fighting for. To reiterate, censorship will continue to block our society from growing until we learn that that box in our heads, the one labelled “morally acceptable”, can be moulded to out own interpretation, that we do not always have to be monotonous robots – think and believe what we are programmed to, because If we cannot think for ourselves, what will become of us'