Did You Know It Was Banned Books Week? - Granite Grok

Did You Know It Was Banned Books Week?

Banned book week began Sunday, September 22nd, and runs until Saturday the 28th.  They even have their own web site.  http://www.bannedbooksweek.org/

I’m always a bit cautious when people start tossing the censorship thing around and the “banning books” crusade is as likely as any to declare the refusal of a group (school, library, whatever) to include a book in its collection or curriculum, or to exclude one, as “banning” or “censorship.” The actual word for this is choice.  People, parents, societies, cultures, school districts, towns and states, even individuals all exercise choices about material or activities deemed appropriate.  Their exclusion is not censorship unless it is statutory and total.

A store that sells travel books has not banned all other books unrelated to travel.  It has simply chosen not to make them available.  And neither schools nor libraries are required to carry every piece of rubbish simply because someone has put it between a front and back cover and named it a book.

Taxpayers should not be expected to front the cost of shelving offal, nor to finance its inclusion into any publicly funded curriculum.

And if we are to be honest, there are probably thousands of schools whose “collections” and curricula have purposefully excluded facts about American History that are as likely to fit the (dare I say) textbook definition of banning–by those who make such claims–which demonstrates the subjectivity of the entire enterprise.

I’m against actual banning, and let us include burning (because they go together in your head like peanut butter and jelly or root-beer and ice or Bacon and….everything).  I think the free market does a fine job–with a few exceptions–of filtering the rubbish with economic signals, like when no one buys your crappy book; with parents and guardians serving as filters the way the guy behind the counter at the 7-Eleven is supposed to keep minors from getting their hands on cigarettes.  Librarians and teachers are filters as well, or should be, at least for children under their temporary oversight.

I take no issue with content warnings, while we’re in this neighborhood.  We have all kinds of rules and laws about the age-appropriateness of all kinds of things.  Parents, guardians, and others with any relevant interest should be made aware when any content (written, images, music) is coarse, vulgar, violent, or pornographic so that people can make decisions about who is ready for what, and I do not mean just what may be appropriate for children either.

The much despised (by the left mostly) Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County Arizona made a point of making sure that violent offenders under his care were not permitted to view R or NC-17 rated movies.  People with violent and or aggressive sexual tendencies should not be encouraged and letting them watch violent movies or those with strong sexual content (maybe any sexual content) is simply contrary to the idea of rehabilitation and the safety of those around them.  It is not censorship to keep a serial killer from watching movies about serial killers, it is common sense, and almost no one would disagree with that, whether incarcerated or not.

And still, quite often, any effort to filter material in one or two areas of the society without limiting access everywhere else is branded as censorship and book banning.  And it often achieves the expected response.

On the whole the word “censorship” is like the word “racist.”  It comes to the collective consciousness with a lot of baggage and makes itself at home in your head where it shuts down most of the logical parts of your brain, the bits that might otherwise ask important questions and challenge assumptions.

The Orwellian’s have done a fine job of selective application with censorship just as they have racism.  A black guy who has been fed anti-white rhetoric by everyone all the way up to his own President is justified in his rage even if he kills a bunch of crackers–that, we are told– is not racism, but yes, actually, it is.   Paula Dean, on the other hand, after a moment of honesty, got buried by the same perception Nazis and branded as a racist.  The response to Dean was shallow and retaliatory.

People who throw around the terms Banning and censorship are not much different.

I censor television viewing in my home based on its age appropriateness.  I ban written material from my home I find offensive or unsuited to my family.  No one would argue that this is not in fact something called responsible parenting.  But just because my children leave my home, does not mean that I have now sacrificed that responsibility, so when my kids go to public school–which I pay for under penalty of imprisonment should I refuse–I expect, within reason, to be able to exercise similar control under the same pretense; responsible parenting.  Age appropriate.

Yes, I abrogate some of that to the idea that as an administrative unit, we have to be able to function without placing hundreds of different demands on educators from and toward hundreds of different directions, but at the center of that debate is this; is there nothing in the world more universally appropriate to the character of a curriculum, that can convey the same “lesson,” without being vulgar, crass, or over-sexualized?

I bet there is.

In fact I know there is.

We were a stronger nation with better educated children, at a fraction of the cost, for scores of years, long before the latest greatest tome was glued to a cover and disguised as a book.

No offense to the people obsessed with what passes for modern “literature” but while the trappings and accoutrements of modern people have changed,  we are little different from our ancient ancestors on the inside.  Human beings deteriorate quickly to their brutish past.  Succumb easily to greed and wrath, pride and lust, sloth and gluttony.   While is it important to understand the worst side of human nature and the path to productive social behavior–something Religions used to do for us before they became less an aid and more a threat to totalitarian power–if you want to educate generations of thoughtful, compassionate people, why would you go out of your way to feed them garbage and then demand that refusing to allow you to do this is censorship?

History is full of books that tell us a great deal about human nature, history, philosophy, the advantages of being productive, and there are many more that are simply entertaining.  There are many more that are trite, senseless drivel, the equivalent of reality television in print, and there is no reason to have much if any of that in a public school library where exclusion is most likely to be deemed” banning.”

So go forth and enjoy banned books week.  Read something edgy (like Captain Underpants).  Just understand this; if you can still get it, even though it may not be in your public school or library, it is not really a banned book.

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