Floating on the Censorship

We live in a society that has many core principles that we rely on to feel part of a healthy, democratic community. Free speech is one such value that is of particular importance in today's world. Those of us who feel we cannot fully express ourselves in the workplace, at home, or even with close friends, will often turn to online platforms to let their true voices be heard, even at the risk of offending others and losing Facebook friends.

True censorship is difficult to pin down in the modern era because it can be much more subtle and subversive than examples from our history. The best way to talk about it is in observing ourselves in day-to-day interactions. How often do we catch ourselves thinking: "I wish I could say this, but I'm sure someone would be offended..."?

We can do a bit of a thought experiment in this article which can help us develop more self-awareness and courage in all aspects of our daily relationships with others. A good example, for those in the US, would be if everyone at work is standing at the water cooler talking about how much they disagree with, dislike, or downright hate President Trump.

Enter me. My contrarian and (dangerously) critical-thinking mind starts churning and coming up with an argument for the other side of the commonly-held social narrative.

The chatter stops and everyone glances in my direction. I take a deep breath and prepare to offer my perspective on the matter. Before I vocalize my carefully-crafted response, something shows up from a hurt, fearful place within:

"You better not say that, you know they'll take it out of context. Probably better to just go along to get along. Maybe just agree on this one, you have to pick your battles..."

I watch in horror as my mouth nervously utters, "Yeah, you're right about that, better move to impeach him..."

And so it goes. Maybe I am a Trump supporter, forced to live in the closet for fear of rejection and negative consequences at work. Maybe most of my friends disagree with me and I feel forced to mumble halfhearted agreements with them as well. (Keep in mind that I am actually a Canadian and this is just a convenient example.)

What does all this self-imposed censorship do? On the surface, it seems like it allows for social harmony and a more positive, agreeable way of relating to one another. It creates the sense of collective agreement and consensus; everyone seems to be on the same page.

And yet, I feel in some way that I have gone against my integrity. I have pushed something authentic in myself deep down inside, adding to what Carl Jung called the collective unconscious, or shadow.

This shadow is not something that just goes away because we deem it to be inconvenient to our daily lives. We yearn to be able to express our truth to the people around us, even if we don't always agree with one another. If we can't do it face to face, social media is there to pick up the slack.

What I have noticed is that to whatever degree we censor ourselves in person, we will let that shadow out online. How many times have we caught ourselves typing something, hitting "Enter," and then later looking and wondering, "who wrote this?" Indeed, it is almost as though our shadow has a life of its own at times.

The level of vitriol and rudeness that we can see online is the counterbalance of all the times we have collectively suppressed our authentic self throughout the rest of the day. The more we feel safe to let our truth speak with people, the less we feel the need to attack, argue, and defend ourselves.

Upholding the principles of free speech means that everyone has a right to be heard. Period. We are free to agree and disagree, as long as no violence is involved. This is in my opinion a core tenet of what makes the world free. Censorship begins and ends with the individual. Our courage to speak our authentic truth is the force which takes us from the sinking censor-ship to the indomitable relation-ship.