Banning books is a bit unlike and like prohibiting thinking. The former is possible (but sometimes desirable?) and the latter is impossible (but sometimes desirable?).
I think of the psychotic whose thoughts needs to be regulated through medication; I think of virulently racist propaganda that would lead only to violence and terror; then I think that common sense must prevail, but I do not know whose common sense will be in control.
Dangerous thought and discourse must, of course, be confronted and combatted. But banning either does not advance that cause, since it drives it underground. So we stop noticing it. But it's still there.
Banning books is a bit unlike and like prohibiting thinking. The former is possible (but sometimes desirable?) and the latter is impossible (but sometimes desirable?).
ReplyDeleteI don't think interfering with reading or thought can ever be desirable.
ReplyDeleteI think of the psychotic whose thoughts needs to be regulated through medication; I think of virulently racist propaganda that would lead only to violence and terror; then I think that common sense must prevail, but I do not know whose common sense will be in control.
ReplyDeleteDangerous thought and discourse must, of course, be confronted and combatted. But banning either does not advance that cause, since it drives it underground. So we stop noticing it. But it's still there.
ReplyDelete