Nightmare of Moloch

(Hello! I'm Josh, a new contributor here. I was once the editor of A More Pleasant Blog, a now-defunct blog similar to this one. Hopefully A Less Pleasant Blog will have more success than mine did! I'm a full-time student at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and I write poetry, prose, play blues harmonica and piano, enjoy long walks on the beach, and S&M.)

Nightmare of Moloch

“What sphinx of cement and aluminum bashed open their skulls and ate up their brains and imagination?” –Allen Ginsberg, “Howl” (Part II, lines 1-3)

As American citizens and, indeed, as human beings, no right is more sacred to us than our right to freedom of expression. The freedom of expression fosters the growth of the qualities that separate man from less-intelligent beings (animals, small rocks, Rush Limbaugh): namely communication, creativity, an understanding of self and a general understanding of the world around us. All other liberties stem from this crucial right, for without it we are simply zombies controlled by the will of power and corruption.

Free speech is a right, not a privilege. It is the freedom we are born with and the freedom it is our duty to use and protect. Were it not for the brave actions of some men and women to express their thoughts and feelings at the least “convenient” times, human history as we know it would have slowed to a standstill. If free speech was not fostered as it were women would not have the right to vote, slavery would not have been abolished, the United States would have never sought independence, and science would have bowed to the supreme authority of the Bible and the Catholic Church. With such monumental stakes on the line, defending one’s right to think for themselves has cost the lives of many.

A landmark for modern free speech occurred fifty years ago in1957 when an obscenity trial was brought against poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti and his City Lights Bookstore for their publication of “Howl,” a poem by Allen Ginsberg which contains numerous references to both heterosexual and homosexual acts (as in the lines “…who let themselves be fucked in the ass by saintly/motorcyclists, and screamed with joy…”) and drugs (as in the lines “…or purgatoried their/torsos night after night/with dreams, with/drugs, with waking nightmares,/alcohol and cock and endless balls,/incomparable blind…), as well as containing many uncensored expletives (including, but not limited to: fuck, fucked, ass, cock, cocksucker, cunt, snatch, and other variations). After a widely publicized case, the court ruled in favor of Ferlinghetti and for free speech. To quote San Francisco Municipal Court Judge Clayton Horn, “the theme presents unorthodox and controversial ideas. Coarse and vulgar language is used in treatment and sex acts are mentioned, but unless the book is entirely lacking in social importance it cannot be held obscene” (Garofoli, “’Howl’ Too Hot to Hear,” final paragraph).

But now, even fifty years after the rule of law declared the poem not obscene, a new controversy is brewing over the poem’s content. In one of the finest examples of irony to be seen in a long time, the radio station WBAI, “long the radio flagship of cocky resistance to government excess, decided last week that it couldn’t risk a 50th anniversary broadcast of the late poet’s recording of ‘Howl’” (“A Muse Unplugged,” par. 2). This brazen step back for free speech in this country occurred because of “fear that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) would levy large obscenity fines that might bankrupt the small-budget station” (“A Muse Unplugged,” par. 2).

What kind of country do we live in when the population lives in fear of an agency designed to serve us? We have become a people that shriek out in horror when Janet Jackson’s breast is exposed on live TV, or cry foul at musicians for the content of their lyrics. Where is that starry spangled-eyed wonder that we lost which produced a poem of such magnitude? What gives the Moloch-like federal government the arrogance to scare a small radio station into self-censorship? This same government has stepped even further into blasphemy to censor the words of our greatest generation, removing the word “fuck” from verbal accounts of World War II veterans in broadcasts of Ken Burns’ latest documentary (“A Muse Unplugged,” par. 4). Where is the line drawn? Who draws the line? Is it us? Is it them? Is the line a reflection of society, what society will not hear? How many eyes must we have in order to see the looming tragedy that is gradually unfurling itself over the landscape of the American continent?

The FCC argues that it is acting in the best interests of the population, but we have the liberty of choice, of choosing what we want and do not want to hear. Whether it is hearing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at Columbia University or a late American’s poem on the radio, we all have the choice to either listen, or not. We can choose not to watch a madman speak; we can choose to change the station. Why must we let Moloch decide for us?

Om.

Works Cited

"A Muse Unplugged." The New York Times 8 Oct. 2007: A-22.

Garofoli, Joe. "’Howl’ Too Hot to Hear." The San Francisco Chronicle. 3 Oct. 2007.

Ginsberg, Allen. "Howl." Howl and Other Poems. San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1956.