The Abhorrent

Censorship stinks, no matter who does it

Recently, I was involved in a discussion about those statues that celebrate the losers in the Civil War. The woke crowd is happy. Many statues have been removed. The woke claim that those statues represent evil, wicked men, who embraced slavery, and so forth. You know the routine.

I don’t think of the woke crowd as peopled by those who are well educated in history or sociology. They are, however, excellent in messaging and manipulating. They can provoke guilt in people who had nothing to do with slavery, or who never made a racist remark in their life.

The Civil War in the USA is not a simple, cut and dried issue. There’s a messy background story, about men who declared “all men are created equal,” and so forth. The woke would like to take down of few of those statues and memorials as well. And, you read it here, that is a logical conclusion to arrive at if you are paying attention. Indeed, the woke would censor all sorts of things. They would rip away Western Civilization if they could only get you to agree to that. To effect that end, they would have to censor just about everything. You included.

I abhor censorship, of any kind, because censorship doesn’t work to expand human knowledge or consciousness. Censorship is one person deciding what is important for you to know. It is education by dictatorship. Which is an oxymoron because there isn’t much in the way of education when the dictator tells you what you will learn.

I was fortunate as a child, as  my mother, and my step-mother, allowed me to read any book I wanted. Indeed, my mother was a knowledge pusher. She had, in her library of books, books that had once been censored. She was an excellent example of what happens when you blue pencil entire books. It makes one curious about the book. When I was a teen, I got my hands on a copy of Tropic of Cancer. Supposedly, or so we were led to believe, it was a racy book, pure porn. I go, perhaps, 10 pages into it, and then tossed it. What an unforgivably, boring book.

The woke don’t get it. In the future, people will want to know what those statues were about. So for the truly curious, hiding those statues hasn’t accomplished much. It certainly hasn’t enlightened anyone. But the woke love to play helicopter mom to the rest of us.

“Don’t look at that, it might hurt you.”

“How will it hurt me?”

“Be quiet, and look at the things I’ve picked out for you.”

Monster Mom is not being protective. She wants submission from her child, so that he or she, will always need her. If anyone needs censoring, it is she. Ditto the Woke.  Except I abhor censorship.

Censorship happens in other ways, not just in hiding statues and burning books. Here’s my story about what I had missed due to censorship.

Beginning to the 18th century, the classic stories of the Arabian Nights were translated and published for a European audience. The translators added other stories, and took away some things. For example, the stories of Ali Babi, and Aladdin, are no where found in the Arabic originals. The 19th century English translation, by Sir Richard Francis Burton, excluded some of the sexy stuff. Lately, I purchased the latest translation, directly from the Arabic, that includes the entire text. Holy cow, I had missed so much because translators, and publishers, didn’t think it was appropriate that everything be made available.

Here’s another story, hot off the press. In April, Pope Francis apologized to the native people of Canada for the awful treatment they suffered through in the Catholic schools set up for the native Canadians. Yes, even those gentle Canadians did not treat the native people well. My question is, how many of you reading this knew of the horrendous treatment of the natives in Canada? I bet not many. Therefore, that makes the argument for me, that such information was either directly, or indirectly, censored.

People who censor got stuff to hide.

Every subject needs to be talked about, and taught about. How are young people supposed to know how to differentiate the trash from the good stuff unless you show it to them. Nonetheless, the teacher need not be the censor either. Teachers need to show and tell but they are not hired to be the editor, or to pass on their personal biases. Most people can see the difference between a Raphael and a Hockney. You don’t need to tell them which is better. They will choose for themselves.

What is super important is for all of us to read, and know about, the other side of the big picture historical events. The adage of history being written by the winners is not quite true. The point is, we tend to pay attention to the winner’s history, and ignore the other side.

It is important to understand that there are two sides to every story. And, Newton’s law must be understood, that for every action, there is a reaction. The third lesson to be learned, is that when you look at those statues, that could be you. Meaning, we are all capable of inhumanity to humanity. It all depends on the perspective. On which side of a line do you stand?

Only the ignorant censor others. Keep that in your head. Always remember that Dickens advised us to fear ignorance, not want. For it is ignorance that leads to want. Which means, it is impossible to educate people too much.

Whenever any group tries to hide something away, understand that you are dealing with the ignorant. They censor because they don’t have the full picture themselves. And they project their own fears onto others. In doing so, they become what they have censored.