Ray Bradbury's
Fahrenheit 451 is a science fiction book that has proven itself over the past 50 years. I feel that Bradbury really felt that censorship and knowledge were going to head down hill, and in many ways, it has. A few years ago, a thirteen year old girl took a brand new Harry Potter book to school, and ended up with detention. For a long while, Harry Potter was banned from schools. This was due to the magic and the fact that many people had classified it as 'satanic.' Does this story remind me a lot of the information that
Fahrenheit 451 predicted? Yes, it truly does. It was not until a few years later that it was allowed in the school libraries. I feel that schools should be encouraging children to read, not giving them detention based on the book. This makes me feel Bradbury was right in predicting the future. In many ways, censorship can be both good and bad. To learn more about the thirteen year old and whether or not censorship is good or bad visit
http://www1.epinions.com/content_2629345412.
No matter what, people will have different views about whether or not television and the Internet has destroyed American's ability to read and think critically about ideas. It is actually a very good argument because both sides have great points. Many people can argue and say shows like Dora, CSI, and the Internet itself has indeed helped to make us smarter. Dora teaches you how to read and write in Spanish, CSI has helped us with our critical thinking skills, and the Internet has allowed us to further our knowledge. On the other hand, many people say the Internet and television has completely dumbed people down. The television is thinking for you now, and you are no longer thinking for yourself. Or, instead of using critical thinking to figure something out, you just hop on the Internet. Things like Microsoft Word has made it to where people lose the ability to read and write because they just spell check it. My position on this argument is that it has not destroyed the ability to read and think critically. I feel it has helped us in the long run. There are more goods than bads in my opinion. To see the many different views visit
http://www.frihost.com/forums/vt-68796.html.
This last topic of whether or not authorities will burn our books for the good of the people is hard to grasp. Do I think they will burn books for the good of the people, definitely not. Do I feel that authorities will burn books if they are conspiring against the government or higher figures, yes. That is a hard and out there answer to give, but if books are making mass amounts of people hate the government and conspire against them, I could not say no they wouldn't burn the books for their own good. The other point is no I do not feel the people will allow this to happen. Ray Bradbury is a man that has inspired people to not allow this to happen without a fight. I feel the authorities would not burn all books, but maybe a few if the time comes to it. People can argue and say this would never happen, but I have learned to never say the word never. Technically burning books is not illegal in most cases, so lets hope and pray our world does not end up like
Fahrenheit 451. In our time, many books have been banned, to see a list visit
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_books_banned_by_governments
In conclusion, Fahrenheit 451 did predict our future in some ways. Yet, I still do not believe that television and the Internet is destroying our ability to think critically. Do I feel we will ever come to a time where the government and authorities burn books? Not necessarily but maybe. If this happens it is definitely not for the good of the people.
