# Book Banning is Suggestive By:: [[Ross Jackson]] 2023-07-13 Advocating for the banning of books is an interesting position to stake. The rationale is that one should not be exposed to certain thoughts. More to the point, one group thinks a given topic or position is wrong, and other people should not even know about it. By extension, their view is that one shouldn’t think for oneself. Their position is often framed in the context of protecting children. One could imagine hundreds of children walking past a copy of _The Communist Manifesto_ in a school library without any of them indicating an interest in reading. Maybe a handful would read it and share it with a handful more. It seems like a relatively low-risk activity in which only a few would be “exposed” to the dangerous idea. Being exposed to an idea does not mean that one will accept it. People come across thousands of ideas that they determine lack merit and reject and ignore. This occurs routinely. However, the ideas are dismissed after individuals give them thought. Those advocating the banning of books convey several things with their action: 1. They stake a position that people shouldn’t be exposed to ideas contrary to the ones with which they agree. 2. Their action suggests they have little faith in others’ thinking ability. 3. They seem to admit, at least implicitly, that some ideas are somehow more enticing than the one they hold and that the “correct position” can only maintain in isolation. Each suggests the status quo’s weakness rather than the alternative’s strength. Interestingly, the loudest voices advocating for freedom only support it to the degree to which people conform to established regimes of power. #### Related Items [[Book]] [[Beliefs]] [[Thinking]] [[Ideas]] [[Status Quo]] [[Power]] [[Control]]