The figures are out on the trends for book bans in the U.S. and the news is not good: Requests to ban books hit a 21-year high (CNN). These numbers reflect a sharp upsurge in requests to remove books from public schools and libraries, as recorded by the American Library Association.
“What we are seeing now is organized political advocacy groups go to school boards with an agenda with a long list of books they want banned because those books don’t fit their political, moral or religious agenda,” Deborah Caldwell-Stone, the director of the ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, told CNN.
Texas leads all states in such requests. Florida is up there but also the political swing states including Michigan.
Books with LGBTQ+ themes are the major targets of these efforts. Books written by people of color also show up among the most-banned titles.
What this says about the state of the nation is, of course, disgusting. People who are afraid of ideas and the power of writing are the kind of people who support authoritarian solutions as opposed to democracy.
As I was listening to 91-year-old Andrew Young speak at the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington last week, I was struck by his description of democracy as a difficult, messy process.
He’s right of course and maybe that explains the present moment. Democracy is hard, but authoritarianism is easy. People can sit back and leave all the decisions to a strong man, as opposed to educating themselves about issues, organizing initiatives and speaking out. In a robust debate, the best ideas prevail and the best writing rises to the top. Authoritarians hate that.
A society that gives way to intellectual laziness becomes slothful. That’s what the book banners seem to want: A nation of mental sloths. They may ultimately regret their success when they see what kind of society can no longer think for itself.
Full of the kind of people who support Donald Trump.
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