Riding atop the disappointing news that clusters of small.minded individuals still have the right to tell us what we can read, I step back and ask how this personally affects me. The banning of books. The burning of ideas. The ravaging of airwaves. What do all these have in common and — from one of those rare egotistical standpoints — how do these trends of my modern universe affect my life?

Censorship?

Often, people blame some nameless body called the government: but in a so-called democracy, the government is composed of people (like you and me — maybe even you or me) who are elected or hired, paid or morally compensated for their contributions to policies regarding numerous aspects of running a country. But — the query that often escapes — is that the government are just that: people.

Not that this makes them any less accountable for their actions. They are. But it does remind us that peoples and governments can make mistakes that need to be checked and guarded. Called. Corrected.

Step back from the ancient art of book burning for a moment — forget that just last night three kids books were condemned for apparent crimes against humanity — and step up to a more modern form of thought control: the radio.

Just a few weeks ago I inelegantly extolled on the joys of my afternoons plugged into my (former) favorite radio station, MOJO. I explained, that while disappointed with some of their unchecked local ramblings — poorly informed jockeys and advertisements promoting drug use and pornography — that a particular afternoon radio (re)broadcast from the States was becoming an interesting facet of my listening day. Tom Leykis, I explained, was how I occupied those monotonous hours on the bus. His controversial show — and what do we know are the only reasons radio is alive anymore: free music, free news, and free controversy — may have been a little brash, sexist, and single-minded, but that’s what made it so right. Freedom of expression. Freedom of discussion. The freedom to say and do and think and act in whatever way you want, so long as you are not taking those rights away from anyone else.

But then we get to the topic of censorship.

On Tuesday afternoon I tuned into 730AM to unceremoniously discover that the show had been dropped despite HUGE (and I mean HUUUUUUGE) ratings from the program and station. Why? That’s the question a lot of listeners were suddenly asking…

Now you might think I, myself, am a little out to lunch to be tuning into Tom’s show. I don’t care. I’m part of an subtly-oppressed majority: the young white male, who can’t move his lips, tappity-type a keyboard, or drizzle ink on a page without fear of offending some apparent minority group. I’m an adult who — sure — has a relatively easy life, but who is also not without sacrifice to get to where I am. I think — as a taxpayer, a citizen of this country, and a human being stuck on this cluttered little planet — that I should be able to listen to whatever I want to listen to. I don’t think anyone has the capability to judge the influence any piece of information has on my mind. My policy: give me everything — every byte of information, every wave of electromagnetic audio, every letter of a novel, and every ideoplast of spiritual musing — and I will filter it for myself. I am smart and completely capable of doing this without the assistance of the aforementioned government. Without filters imposed by society.

A philosopher might tell me that this is impossible: society is full of filters that can never be removed, no matter what we say, think, or do.

Given. So why add more?

Then why was the Tom Leykis Show dropped from Canadian airwaves? Censorship. Pressure from some governing body.

I personally imagine that — since 730AM used to be a news radio station — some little old lady tuned in on a summer afternoon to listen to Joe Newscaster tell her about the latest Hollywood gossip. Instead, she got Tom ranting on his 101. When she recovered from her heart attack, she joined the forces of her knitting group to get the “evil” off the air.

Yes, we need to respect our elders. Yes, we need to take everyone’s opinion to heart. But censorship? I thought we lived in a free country.