A One-Sided Conversation with an Angry Tardigrade

Let’s start off this week with what is probably the first book that comes to mind when you think of banned books – Ray Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit 451”.  I chose this one because: 1) most readers have probably read it so I won’t need to spend a lot of time providing a synopsis, and 2) it’s a banned book about banning books, and yes, there are other important themes as well, but this is Banned Books Week and not Other Important Themes week, so just go with it.

For those who haven’t read it in a while, or for those who haven’t read it at all, nor watched either of the movie adaptations, it is a story set in a future America where books are banned.  The government’s reasoning is that critical thought and independent ideas lead to disagreements, fighting and wars, so they’ve done away with all that by banning all books.  Conversations are reduced to inane prattle. Wall-sized interactive TVs televisions (called “parlor walls”) broadcasting highly-immersive but meaningless dreck designed to ensure a docile populace , too-fast cars, and other forms of instant gratification became the sole source of mental stimulation.  And firemen, no longer needed to put out fires due to improvements in technology, are now responsible for enforcing the book ban by tracking down contraband books and burning them, along with whatever house the books are found in.  Our protagonist, Guy Montag, is one such fireman. After Guy’s wife Mildred, who is obsessed with her parlor wall and strongly allergic to giving any thought to anything going on outside her own home, OD’s on sleeping pills, Guy starts to question his perception of happiness.  Days later, he’s called to burn the book-filled house of an old woman, who chooses to light a match and burn herself to death, along with her books.  Shocked by her death, Guy finds himself secretly taking a few books, leading to the somewhat predictable outcome that he will eventually read the books, discovering the knowledge within, and flee his previous life as a tool of an oppressive government to…well, you’ll have to read the book if you don’t know what happens to Guy.

Anyhow, there is one main point that sometimes gets lost in discussions about the book, and it’s this: The government enacted the book ban, leading to the ultimately doomed dystopian society that Guy flees.  But it was actually THE PEOPLE who demanded the ban in the first place.  It was society that chose blissful ignorance over critical thinking, over intellectual discourse, over differing opinions that might hurt their delicate fee-fees.  No fascist autocrat subduing a population by force. No charismatic dictator tricking people into giving up independent thought and intellectual freedom like a mythical chef with a pot of slowly boiling frogs.  Simply a government giving its people exactly what they asked for. 

The reason I bring this up at the start of Banned Books Week is because, well, here we are.  Book banning efforts have ramped up and are becoming more successful in our schools and public libraries.  The Trump administration is purging information from its websites regarding anything that paints Cis White America in an unflattering light (or simply doesn’t put those straight white folks in the nation’s adoring spotlight).  The Kennedy Center, Smithsonian Museums, and even all forms of public broadcasting have been either taken over by right-wing zealots or have been defunded entirely.  Tech giants are spending billions of dollars developing digital tools to (in their own words) replace artists, intellectuals and other highly skilled individuals with computer programs that’ll turn any drooling simpleton into a Mensa candidate.  And none of this really started with this administration, let’s be fair, but Jesus Christ on a Bicycle, has it taken off since.  And, yes, the administration IS INDEED full of fascist kleptocrats, but these people were given the keys to the government by millions of useful idiots who are cheering every single move.

Bottom line is, beware of the firemen who are coming for our ideas.  But be more wary of the society who sends them, because that is the far bigger threat.