Burning Books

Where one begins by burning books, one will end up burning people. – Heinrich Heine

I do not approve of burning books. I do not approve of most kinds of censorship. I’m hard pressed to think of any kind of censorship that I would approve of, for adults that is. With kids, it’s a different story. But, this post is about adults.

Books contain ideas, radical ideas, different ideas, powerful ideas. Books provide points of view that differ and perhaps confuse people. Books can make people think. For these reasons, some people consider them dangerous and should be burned so they do not disrupt the harmony in society (what society they think they’re living in, I’m not sure; my society isn’t in harmony).

However, people contain ideas, radical ideas, different ideas, powerful ideas. People provide points of view that differ and confuse people. People can make people think. For these reasons, some people consider them dangerous and should be censored so that they do not disrupt the harmony in society. But in America, we have freedom of speech and I believe it can be said with a good deal of accuracy that America as a whole likes to shake things up a bit.

You cannot have both censorship and freedom, and you cannot have both freedom and complete harmony. Freedom is too important to ban or burn books, even at the expense of harmony in society, because generally that harmony is just a surface illusion at best while freedom, when done right, can exist throughout the whole.