On Defacing a Mind – Sunday, December 02, 1945
As a society of people we have learned to take measures to protect ourselves against many things. Those who commit theft or violence, we endeavor to isolate. Against the- spread of many communicable diseases, we impose quarantine. Against those who are responsible for hazards to public health or safety, we invoke injunctions and penalties. But there are some things against which it would seem we have not been so effective in protecting ourselves—one of which is offensive speech.
The voicing of indecent or obscene stories, or the utterance of foul language, leaves impressions which sear the minds of those who hear them. If we were to spread poison where others were likely to be contaminated or injured, we would expect to be summarily dealt with. But those who befoul the moral and intellectual atmosphere with offensive utterances are polluting the air as surely as though they were to spread a physical poison. Sometimes young people, sometimes all of us, think it won’t hurt us to partake of such things; we think we can listen or look as we choose, withdraw our attention when we choose, and forget what we choose. But the impressions left upon our minds persist, and are often recalled under circumstances beyond our control.
There are many situations in which people are thrown together, sometimes in close quarters, under conditions of necessity or duty, when the speech of one, offensive or not, is heard by all. And under such conditions, offensive speech would seem to be even more offensive than when a listener could walk away from it. The defacement of a piece of property or a work of art is a punishable crime. But how much more despicable is the deliberate defacing and befouling of the mind of man, than which there is no greater work of God, no greater creation. Of course, we cannot isolate ourselves from life.
As long as we live with others, we shall see and hear things which are not to our liking and which are not of our choosing. But let no man who deliberately smears his life and his thoughts, or the thoughts of others, take any comfort in the supposed assurance that he or anyone else can forget them when he wants to, because there is no erasing of the substance of memory—but there are many who would give much to forget some of the things they have seen or heard. It would seem, therefore, that our need to protect ourselves from mental infection is at least as great as our need— for protection against physical hazards. Freedom of speech is a glorious right and privilege—but indecent speech is an abuse of freedom.
“The Spoken Word,” heard over Radio Station K S L and the nationwide Columbia Broadcasting System, from the Tabernacle, Temple Square, Salt Lake City, Sunday, Dec. 2, 1.945. Copyright 1945.
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December 02, 1945
Broadcast Number 0,850