Banned Book Week . . . At 30

abffe.org

Banned Books Week and I are the same age.  That means that as long as I've been alive someone has been fighting censorship and the promoting the right to spread ideas through tax-funded venues.  Censorship, we can agree, is probably bad in a democratic environment.  It's inimical to the idea that the best will win out.  It's based on the assumption that most people in a democracy are free-thinking, reasonable human beings just looking out for their own well-being.  It's the same kind of assumption that most economists made (and largely still make). 


While I disagree with the assumption, I do agree with Banned Books Week that censorship is (mostly) bad.  Ideas have a way  of getting out regardless, and it doesn't matter how hard you try to stop them.  To paraphrase Princess Leia: The more you tighten your grip, the more ideas will slip through your fingers. 

But libraries (especially school libraries whose primary target are children) are tax-funded venues.  And tax-payers have the right to restrict what they feel might be offensive or dangerous materials from their shelves.  They are, after all, the community for which the library is intended.  What Banned Books Week is trying to avoid, however, is the tyranny of an individual dictating which books ought and ought not to be read.  In a democratic forum, anything is up for grabs, and if a committee of community leaders get together to decide they don't want The Anarchist's Cookbook floating around, that's all well and good.

So, go support books.  Head on over to the library and check out Brave New World, Catcher in the Rye, or To Kill a Mockingbird.