Monday, September 23, 2013

Banned Book Week

It's that time of year when we all act incredulously about the writings of Twain, Shakespeare, Salinger, Bierce, Paine, Steinbeck, Vonnegut etc. that have been banned for all kinds of idiotic reasons.

Each year we pledge to fight censorship etc. etc. etc.

Yes that is what we dutifully do. We pat ourselves on the back for recognizing the fight against censorship; we applaud our intellectual broadmindedness, etc. and then we sit down and watch the news that favors our political view, we read the newspaper whose editorial page agrees with us, etc. etc.

Censorship is not just a bunch of banned books; Censorship concerns a message; Censorship looks to ban an exchange of ideas. We need to celebrate banned books every week not once every year.

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