Instead we wanted to show how deeply entrenched self-censorship has already become.

That's a very alarming number. The situation is very comparable to Colombia in terms of self-censorship and the level of violence.

At CBS, I’m in your house. I’m mindful of that. When I do standup, you’re in my home and I can say what I want to.

This process of self-censorship is ubiquitous and that those who do it believe that they are doing the right thing. That they call it "sensitivity" and "fairness" review without realizing that they are censoring to placate pressure groups, or in anticipation of protests.

Our words had to be circumspect. We could not write anything too negative about our circumstances. This was tricky, since the very form of a married woman's letter needed to include the usual complaints -- that we were pathetic, powerless, worked to the bone, homesick, and sad. We were supposed to speak directly about our feelings without appearing ungrateful, no-account, or unfilial.

When we compare music today to the past, we can see there is now a total lack of self-censorship. Although vulgar language has been a basic foundation of culture since ancient Greece, the problem is that because the media allow us to hear many more songs than our ancestors did, musicians have to be as vulgar as possible to be heard.