Burning Books for Fun and Profit

Well, no burning yet. At least not that I know of. But banning, yes. If you followed the mainstream news, you would think that every library in the country (US) is frantically pulling books off their shelves and chucking them in the dumpster. Remember the scene from “The Music Man” when the mayor’s wife, Eulalie, confronts Marion the librarian for having “The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam” on the shelves of the public library? (She had an issue with Balzac as well.) People have been trying to ban books (and burn them too) since the day Gutenberg started to massively press out pages of print in 1440.

So, what’s all the fuss about today?

It is important not to conflate public library book “banning” with public school library book “banning.” (I put “banning” in quotes because that too is an “agenda” manipulation to use such a charged word.) There is no comparison of the two at all, and I have to say, the articles I have read about this phenomenon seem to purposely confuse the issue. This is typical, and in my opinion the whole hoopla about all this banning crap was instigated by the sudden rash of pressure from special interest groups to place books that advocated subjects such as “what a wonderful life it is to be trans” and the like.  More on that in a minute.

There is definitely truth behind schools being concerned and sensitive to what young, unformed and immature, minds have access to. Children, and the questions regarding their mental and emotional maturity or immaturity, have been studied extensively for quite some time, not to mention common sense (oh, remember that?) that supports the idea that children should be protected from certain literary complexity until a time they can properly assimilate that complexity. I will not attempt to describe “what, when, and where” regarding this issue. I will leave that up to child psychologists, school administrators, teachers, librarians, and parents (yes, parents). I am not saying, unequivocally, that any, or all, of these people are capable of coming up with rational decisions, but they are hypothetically, and hopefully, more qualified than me.

So, let’s place the divide on this issue clearly between public and school (protecting children) “banning.”

With the bit of research I have done, and I must admit it is not thorough, it seems that once again a mountain has been made out of a molehill. Books have always been banned from schools for various reasons (as I have just mentioned.) Considering the enormous push we are seeing from trans advocacy groups to groom children toward trans-transition (don’t jump on me for this comment, there is no question this is true as they admit it themselves), it stands to reason there will be at least an equal push from concerned parents to control the content on the shelves of school libraries. This same push may be happening in the public arena, as communities do have the right to advocate certain public exposures within their community (as, for example, it is against the law to pee in a public parking lot, among other obvious public “restrictions.”) Remember, this is after all a free country (cough cough.) From what I have read, the sudden rise in book banning is not the actual execution of banning books, but rather a lot of saber-rattling by concerned citizens feeling the moral decency of their communities is being threatened.

As mentioned before, in a free society, the “people” have the right to petition for certain sorts of restrictions in their communities. So, all you far left liberals reading this (all three of you), try not to get your panties in a wad. How the constitution works around this with regard to free speech I do not know. But I cannot tell you the number of times I was told by various red-in-the-face people that it is only the government that has to follow the rules of the constitution, and that private business can do whatever they want as long as they are not infringing on human rights (yes, there is that pesky Bill of Rights actually in the constitution). I’m not a lawyer, I don’t know.

It does seem to me that the agenda has once again mashed all this together and has made it into something it simply is not. I see memes of bookshelves filled with books that we are all familiar with, that the meme claims are now banned. Certainly, some of this is true, but be more specific, please: where? when? for what reason? And who is demanding these books be “made unavailable?”

Of course, the conservatives are blamed for this. And as I’ve said previously in this article, there certainly are conservative groups that want to control the moral underpinnings of their community (not just with regard to trans issues, but other things as well). I think it is their right to try. Personally, I do not agree with any banning of any book anywhere other than in public schools for children. But again, anyone can try. If a community library bans Balzac or Omar Khayyam, and you are not happy with the decision, then advocate for their return, or move to a more open-minded community. Or, if the library is funded by the US Government, point out it is a constitutional violation of free speech.

I definitely do not think this is a phenomenon that is exclusive to the conservatives. The “Woke and Cancel Culture” certainly has had their hand in demanding censorship. And of course, the trans advocates want certain books included, which triggers the conservatives to want to have them removed. It is definitely a mess.

I am sure you are getting the picture here. When it comes to young, underdeveloped, and immature minds, then yes, there should be restrictions. But as a child grows into maturity, what should be kept from them? I think the same way we have always dealt with these issues will still be the manner in which we deal with them today. Discussions amongst educators, administrators, child psychology experts, and parents, should continue in depth and in earnest to determine what is best for kids of any age in a particular community.

The public scene? Well, to me that is different. And as said before, the books readily available that a community library chooses to stock, should be determined by what the individuals in that community choose to check out and borrow (as well as adhering to decency and pornography laws), and everything else should be readily available to those unique individuals whose desires may not match their “community’s standards.” So, the problem then boils down to individual character, which cannot be taught, or forced, onto a mature individual by banning books the community believes that individual should not read. The structure of the problem is already set, and it must be solved in other ways before it gets to the level where it can cause trouble. Keeping books from an individual whose moral character is dubious, is not going to make him or her safe for the community.

So, what are we left with? Well, I’ve got to say, and you knew this was coming, all of this hoopla about banning books is part of the agenda to distract us from the real issues, to confuse us into hating our neighbors, and to vilify different factions who would dare do such a thing—ban books. We have books being banned by the ultra-conservatives, the fundamental Christians, even the Catholic Church, but we also have books being banned by the ultra-liberals (although from what I have read, this is less common), the “woke-cancel” culture who finds anything that advocates a typical “bell curve normal” life to be an abomination. According to these folks, anything that even smacks of not honoring the restrictive tenets of DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) should be obliterated from the face of the earth. Dr. Seuss is banned, “Charlotte’s Web” is banned “Catch-22” is banned, “1984” is banned—the list goes on. In fact, these two polarized factions are banning the same books for different reasons!

With regard to the controversies over sexual issues (including gender identity) currently running rampant in our culture, conservatives want to curtail the efforts of the ultra-liberals to convert their children to gay and trans people, while the ultra-liberals want to erase any sort of literature that promotes heterosexuality as “the” norm. Again, it’s a mess. And sometimes I wonder if just burning the whole thing down and starting over is the only viable solution we have. Hopefully it will not come to that.