Individuality?

In class, we've discussed censorship multiple times. However, I think in today's society, censorship wouldn't stop at burning books, just like in the book.

If you think about how many freedoms we have in America today, they're all linked back to the constitutional rights we're given at birth. In Fahrenheit 451, it becomes alright (and arguably necessary, says the government) to take away the freedom of press, which leads to people becoming robots that can't think for themselves. If this were to happen today, and with the scary parallels between the book and our lifestyle, it isn't too far-fetched, it would become a gateway to taking away other things. When books get taken away, opinions are repressed. If opinions are repressed, people can forget that there are opinions other than their own. Ideas wouldn't be shared, and individuality would be essentially taken away. Our freedoms define who we are; from our hairstyles, clothes, and make-up, to what we read, etc. When we are denied the right to read books, that's the first step in taking away who we are as individual people.

In relation to the book, I believe that's how it got started. As we can tell, everyone in Montag's time thinks, acts, dresses, and even physically looks the same. Isn't this eerily similar to peer pressure and such today?
~Courtney Neuenschwander (: