Burning Books Is Never A Good Thing

When I started this blog, I never thought I’d be writing anything that might be seen as a political diatribe. Yet, here I am.

So the story, as I’m sure you’re aware, is that a small Christian parish in Florida intended to burn copies of the Q’uran in order to mark the anniversary of September 11. Thankfully, cooler heads have prevailed and the event has been canceled. But it got me thinking about the idea of burning books.

To me, burning a book is not an act of protest, it is an act of fascism.

Wow, a pretty bold statement.

Simply put, books are not merely symbols, they are ideas. Burning a book isn’t just about saying you don’t like the content or you disagree with policies or actions that a particular group takes, burning a book is about destroying ideas and knowledge.

It doesn’t matter if that book is the Q’uran, the Bible or Harry Potter. This to me is a form of control. By destroying ideas, you deny people the ability to expand their knowledge.  By gaining knowledge, we make informed decisions. When we lack knowledge, we all too often have another person’s message pushed in. Anyone remember what the Nazis did? Oh yeah, they burned books.

This is from Wikipedia;

Fascists believe that a nation is an organic community that requires strong leadership, singular collective identity, and the will and ability to commit violence and wage war in order to keep the nation strong. They claim that culture is created by the collective national society and its state, that cultural ideas are what give individuals identity, and thus they reject individualism

Reject individualism? Singular collective identity? How could such a world exist if books were allowed? OK, one book would be allowed, the book that supported the ideas of the fascists. But numerous books? Books that contained contrary ideas? Books that encouraged free thinking and individual spirit? Such things would have to be destroyed.

Books are precious. They give us insight, understanding, and sometimes even entertain. To burn such a thing seems a horrible act, religious text or not.

Don’t join the book burners. Don’t think you’re going to conceal faults by concealing evidence that they ever existed. Don’t be afraid to go in your library and read every book…

Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 – 1969)

2 thoughts on “Burning Books Is Never A Good Thing”

  1. Thank you for your most sensible and well thought rant! I’m in complete agreement except for one thing. If you and I are in a plane crash up North and we are quite cold, it will be all right to burn the Danielle Steele novels that the fellow travellers have with them. They are so fat and might save us if we are judicious in our burning. Also, just an aside, but you may also eat me if I am quite dead. I think my ears might be tasty if toasted lightly over a fat romance!
    Jan Morrison

    1. Haha! I think if it’s done for survival that might be the one exception I make 🙂 as for the tastiness of your ears, well let’s just hope it doesn’t come to that.

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