This document provides a summary of discussions on censorship from an online forum. It includes direct quotes from forum participants on issues like the dangers of selective censorship that removes important context. Historical examples are given that relate to discussions, such as censorship in totalitarian regimes like North Korea and Mao-era China. Participants also discussed controversial topics like how the Civil War is portrayed differently in Northern and Southern US history textbooks.

1. A
A Compendium of Week 4 with Annotations

2. Thoughts Uncensored

 The following slides represent a compendium from
our discussions on censorship. Your reactions were
incredible as was the depth of your concerns and the
amount of original research you did to add to the
overall conversation.
 In the following slides I have included some direct
quotes (attributable, of course) from the DB as well
as inserting some historical (and startling facts).
 Enjoy.

3. Frog in Boiling Water

 Christina writes of one article where the author calls
out how leaving some information in and taking
other information out is ‘more dangerous’ because
the reader does not know any longer what has been
eliminated.
 This is akin to the proverbial frog in boiling water
metaphor. It is also akin to how freedoms can be
slowly stripped away which has been done by many,
many regimes.

4. Deep in the Heart of
Texas

 Here are several articles to chew upon. No comment
necessary. This is in response to Kate’s comment
about how Japan and other so-called enlightened
nations gloss over their own
historyhttp://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/13/educ
ation/13texas.html?_r=0
 http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2010/05
/21/texas-cooks-the-textbooks.html
 http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2010/03/11/ke
lly-shackelford-texas-textbook-social-studies-
standards-american-history/

5. Backlash

 Consider: Libya, Burma (Myanmar), Egypt, Syria
and to Timothy’s post regarding state control- the
grandpappy of all repressive regimes- North Korea.
 Amy, too, addresses this with the comment that
‘mere access’ isn’t enough. How true.
 On the other hand, civilizations and cultures have
often used art to state their opinions in ways that are
subtle but harming to regimes.

6. Loose Lips

 Nope, this is not a rerun from M*A*S*H but in
response to Jeremy’s post regarding censorship of
war information. Consider this historical precedent:
 ttp://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/lslips.htm
 And also our ‘embedding’ of journalists during the
Iraq war. Unprecedented.

7. Chinese Students in the
US

 While reading Greg’s post regarding his great ‘what
if China dropped out of the Internet” does anyone
see a tremendous dichotomy in the fact that China
keeps sending students to the US, to England, to
Australia where the Internet, as you all have pointed
out, is as important today as is breathing.
 What happens when they go home. For those of you
who can connect with a Chinese student, ask.

8. Big Brother

 Victoria’s extremely erudite and comprehensive post
has an undercurrent in it of Big Brother.
 Who was/is Big Brother.
 Hint: the book is amazing considering when it was
written.
 Further to her post, she writes that if sites violate
one’s culture and/or religion, it is okay. Reactions
anyone?

9. The Little Woman

 Christian brings in the dissemination of information
as a form of censorship. The focus is on women.
Once upon a time it was considered dangerous to
allow a woman to read – this was in the ‘civilized’
world.
 http://theboar.org/media/archive/volume-
31/term-2-issue-7/newspaper/39_.pdf

10. Respect Who or is
Whom?

 Evan points to an article where the US State
Department has ‘asked India to respect ‘full freedom
of the Internet.’” Is that what we are supposed to do?
Shouldn’t the country itself make that
determination? Ideas? Comments?

11. Civil War or War of
Northern Aggression?

 In Rachel’s post she comments on how in history
class that we often ‘learn about battles we have won
as well as battles we have lost.” The point she brings
out is on why we need both sides of the story.
 Anyone been to some of the Civil War sites in the
South? How biased are some of the plaques?

12. It Will Be in the Last
Place You Look

 During the totalitarian government of Josef Stalin
people were brutally murdered in the then Union of
Soviet Socialist Republic. To the point that Nicole
makes, if governments are oppressive, people will
find away around it. This man risked his life to
smuggle this manuscript out of the USSR:
 http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/01/home/
solz-gulag.html

13. Notes from Chairman
Mao

 Possibly one of the greatest, and that isn’t the right
word- let’s try egregious – examples of censorship
was during the rule of Mao in China.
 He put into motion the Cultural Revolution
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2010/03/11/ke
lly-shackelford-texas-textbook-social-studies-
standards-american-history/
 It isn’t talked about today even though the very
people who are now part of China’s capitalism
revolution had parents or grandparents affected by
Mao’s ideas.

14. Government Control

 Diana writes that in Lebanon ‘the government is
trying to control way too much.’ We won’t argue
but do need to point out that our very own
government was wandering around in private
emails between a four star general and his paramour
and her so called rival and their other general
and……
No value judgment here; just another way of looking at
governments and control in a day of cyber-everything.

15. So What Does This
Mean for Education?

 As many of the discussion pointed out, all of this can be
defined as a solid – it depends. Culture has much to do
with social media use. Censorship is nothing new and
exists in our own country in many subtle ways.
 In my own opinion the issue isn’t so much education or
globalization or, for that matter, technology. Globalization
is about capitalism or more kindly said, competition and
free markets. Technology is about enabling globalization.
 Education the ability for people to disseminate ideas
freely.