Remember Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, the dystopian novel about book burning in a future America where people memorized entire books to save them for posterity. Published in 1953, the book was supposedly inspired by the Second Red Scare and McCarthy era as well as the book burnings by the Nazis. Today, during the “Trump Scare” the government is not burning but banning books that the Trump administration deems un-American and dangerous. Again, like the Nazis and Bradbury’s dystopian yarn, an authoritarian government is hell bent on controlling thought and behavior and is censoring what we read in an attempt to control what we think and know.
Just recently, political appointees in the Department of Navy’s leadership decided to purge the Naval Academy’s Nimitz Library of offensive works. Apparently, the watch dogs are afraid that the 18 year old cadets might read something that would turn them into terrorists or, heaven forbid, give them an understanding of American history and life. That they are smart enough to take engineering courses and study science but are too dumb to be exposed to real life and historical truth is remarkable. Thank God for these self-appointed guardians of our virtue.
The nearly 381 books selected for removal show an ideological censorship aimed principally at anti-racism and diversity, equity and inclusion policies. Interestingly, while Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings was axed, The Camp of the Saints by Jean Raspail is still on the shelves. Angelou’s 1970 memoir is about her struggles with racism and trauma; Raspail’s work is a 1973 novel about the takeover of the Western world by immigrants from developing countries. The latter has been promoted by Stephen Miller, a senior White House adviser, and is popular with white supremacists. Both these books and others like them with conflicting viewpoints would normally be found in most university libraries.
Book banning joins the attacks on the media, the judiciary, schools and universities, government officials, corporations, and private citizens who dare speak out or have the potential to question the government. This is the historical pattern of all tyrants, dictators and authoritarian governments.
Admiral James G. Stavridis, former commander of all U.S. forces in Europe, is quoted as saying that “Book banning can be a canary in the coal mine and could predict a stifling of free speech and thought.”
Amen.