Throughout time, people who had large amounts of money or land deemed themselves above any form of regulation. They had a right to exploit, bully and disenfranchise others.
In ancient Rome the wealthy patricians seethed with indignation when common folk or freed slaves fought for civil rights like the ability to give testimony, sign as surety on loans, inherit estates and sign contracts.
In Athens the aristocracy couldn’t bear to allow people with less than a certain amount of property to vote, to obtain a jury trial or to be free of debt slavery.
In England, the nobility hated having to share their monopoly economic privileges with others. They also did not want commoners to get an education.
In America, the 1% class are imitating the sins of the ancients by fighting regulation and the raising up of others at every turn.
Too much money in one’s hands is the root of all evil.
Kimball Shinkoskey
Woods Cross, Utah
Book bans
addressed
Here is a Google definition for banned books: “Book censorship is the removal, suppression, or restricted circulation of literary, artistic, or educational material — of images, ideas, and information — on the grounds that these are morally or otherwise objectionable according to the standards applied by the censor.”
The idea of banning books that has gained ground in the country and often for political motivations reminds me of my trip to Berlin several years ago. I visited the plaza where the Nazis burned books written by Jewish scholars, including Einstein. This was a prelude to the Holocaust where Jewish bodies would be burned in crematoriums.
The idea of banning books, no matter how justifiable, is motivated by fear and political ideology that attempts to control and restrict knowledge on moral grounds to “protect” the electorate from newly acquired epistemology. Banning books is ancient. Think of the Inquisition and how Santa Teresa of Avila had to defend her inspired writings before the Grand Inquisitor Torquemada.
We have our own Torquemadas. We hear their shrill voices on our TV screens each day. They cry out in defense of their worldview, one often created in their own image and likeness and to the diminishment of others.
Banning books is a way to control the published books that might promote critical thinking (God help us from critical race theory, they would argue!). Yes, critical thinking is dangerous! It’s the reason the despots of history first eliminate the intellectuals of the country before eliminating anyone suspected of harboring alternative views.
So as you read To Kill a Mockingbird these days, just think of what the loss of Harper Lee would mean for the nation and for critical scholarship in general. Banning books is just a prelude for the loss of the human right to think critically for oneself.
Javier Alanis
Pastor
St. JohnLutheranChurch
San Juan
