One of the themes of the last few weeks has been censorship with the traditional media and social media and even some technology companies deciding to police their channels. The challenge is that if they leave true freedom of speech, as was originally intended, then they run the risk of being blamed for the consequences of that.

Because the technology giants and the neighbourhoods they reside in tend to be liberal fountains, spreading liberal messages, I understand the tendency to block anything looking conservative or running the risk of spreading the “right” message.

I have heard of a few political figures and journalists being removed from platforms because they were conservative.

Whilst not political myself, I fear for freedom of speech. Liberty is important, yet it must come with responsibility.

It’s not really up to social media companies to police their content. Yet, then who is responsible? I believe there are universal principles we can all agree upon whatever divide of the political spectrum we come from. Universal principles like love, kindness toward others, respect for other’s viewpoints, and adhering to principles of human rights.

To advance our civilisation, we don’t need to harbour resentment, racism, xenophobia and religious intolerance. It doesn’t help the human family and our collective consciousness. Yet it’s important we respect people and allow them inclusive rights entrenched in the Constitution. We cannot decide to exclude opinions we don’t like. The censorship police are back!

Whilst the agenda may be thought to be a positive one, each voice is unique and adds to the collective. It’s not up to individuals to decide for society which voices can be heard, and which are relevant.

If we suppress one, we suppress all.

In order to broadcast a higher frequency, we must begin to respect other viewpoints and truly listen to others with an open heart. Hand in hand we can work together, without having the same religions or political viewpoints.

Healing the world is not furthered by censoring people’s right to free speech. We may decide to create boundaries on their freedoms, yet it’s not up to social media companies to act for or against political movements or parties.

A higher view on censorship is that it is creating a container, putting a lid on people’s feelings. It’s done out of fear. Primarily it comes from an anxiety-based orientation, that the truth and the enlightened message cannot bear to deal with conflict or opposition. We live within a three-dimensional polarised world, and it’s simply untenable to think we can control people’s viewpoints and suppress their narratives.

Censorship is the shadow side, placing a blanket cover over that which we don’t wish to see.

We may be successful in suppressing people, yet they will find a way of liberating themselves and in this case, simply create new platforms that serve their conservative political message. This will in all likelihood simply bring them more power.

When the censors start to burn books, then we know we have reached a sad state of affairs.

Let’s consider evolving our viewpoints through embracing higher perspectives on human potential and our human capacity for love, forgiveness and community.

In the words of St. Francis of Assisi, “Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.”