The distinction between containment and censorship.

Containment culture is a term too often thrown around in today's society.  Often times people assume that any form of censorship is a form of containment, without even first understanding what the word means in itself.   Containment is defined as : "A policy of checking the expansion or influence of a hostile power or ideology, as by the creation of strategic alliances or support of client states in areas of conflict or unrest."  I am highlighting the distinction between what qualifies as containment, and what qualifies as censorship.  Many people assume that censoring a piece of material counts as containment, or rather, people who are immediately affected by particular form of censorship believe it qualifies as containment.   This is simply not the case, believe me, I am one of the last people who will argue that censorship is a wholly good thing, but it is far too often categorized as a form of containment.

The true distinction is priority, any issue that has not yet had a concrete set of rules placed on it will fall under some form of censorship.  This is not done to aggravate the population, it is not done to defer responsibility to other parties, it is done simply to stall for time until a reasonable solution is found.   A reasonable solution would fall under the categorization of at least the majority of people supporting it.  The real problem is the amount of support behind an issue when it falls under the censorship category.  A censored issue rarely sees light until someone labels it as containment.  You don't see people today complaining that pornography should be on basic cable when there is something like the drinking age in question.  Both issues are on equal ground politically.  No matter how many arguments are made that the drinking age should be lowered to 18, generally using the argument of adulthood or the ability to be a soldier, the fundamental elements of both issues remain the same. 

What category do they respectively fall under?  After all, containment is the maintenance of an idea that  could later lead to unwanted results.  To me it seems as if the drinking age does not fall under this category.  Nobody argues for or against it in the sense that it is holding back the country; most people would agree that sober people tend to accomplish more, and as such it isn't a matter of national advancement.  But, it is a form of censorship, stifling the use of alcohol in general is.  It is keeping a potentially offensive item away from some subset of the population.  Younger kids have a harder time maintaining their composure when intoxicated, and the laws in this case seem to act in the defense of those who are not yet mature enough to realize what they are subjecting themselves to, and this is the true golden line.  Keeping people who do not "realize" what they are getting themselves into from inflicting harm upon themselves or others; the delivery mechanism of containment.