seventy-five years ago today.
“Where they burn books, they will in the end burn humans as well.”
-Heinrich Heine, Almansor:A Tragedy (1821)
“Where they burn books, they will in the end burn humans as well.”
-Heinrich Heine, Almansor:A Tragedy (1821)
May 11, 2008 at 5:18 am
Those pictures chill me to the bone. The only reason that doesn’t happen here is because of folks like us who own and are ready to use guns. Notice how hard some people on the left are trying to take them away?
May 11, 2008 at 5:20 am
Yes.
However, most of the book burnings in this country have been perpetrated by people who don’t have much love for liberalism, either.
Totalitarianism can come from the left and the right.
May 11, 2008 at 6:28 am
Forgive me, old man, but with the political and moral lassitude that I see in the world today, I fear your “Never Again” may be more a hope than a statement. I fervently hope that came the day, I would stand up and say “No!”, rather than rank with the timid spirits who say “so what if you fight back? You might get one, maybe two - and then you’d be dead”. I can’t claim to know that I would - I hope never to have to find out.
But I am deeply concerned about the path our world’s taking. *sighs* Never Again.
May 11, 2008 at 6:44 am
I could wish that remembering that part of history means never having to repeat it.
I’d also wish to win the lottery, to the same effect.
Human beings are no different at all from the day that atrocity happened. They did it ‘with good intentions’, that are not one whit different from many today.
May 11, 2008 at 8:21 am
How different is burning books from having speech codes at public university where a mere opnion can result in a “threatening atmosphere” that gets you expelled? Even right now we’re closer to that picture than many people would like to admit.
May 11, 2008 at 8:25 am
The monument to the burned books in Berlin is very moving and very understated. You look into a window in the pavement of the platz, and all you see is a bottomless well lined with empty white book shelves.
May 11, 2008 at 9:00 am
It’s kind of weird, but every time I hear people trying to describe an event in America as book-burning or censorship, it devolves to some parents saying something like, “We don’t mind if that book is published, but we don’t think it should be required reading for our kids in school, or should be promoted in the kids section of the library.”
At least, those are the cases I’m familiar with.
No government-sponsored bonfires of books that I have heard of.
This is not to disagree with the general point about totalitarians on both ends of the political spectrum. It is more to say that I haven’t seen anything equivalent to the Nazi book-bonfires within the borders of the United States.
May 11, 2008 at 9:33 am
The book burnings in Germany were encouraged by the government, but organized and executed mostly by student organizations.
Here are a few instances of government-sponsored burning of literature in the U.S.:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/216755/book_burning_in_america.html
There have also been some fairly well publicized incidents of local church groups burning Harry Potter books and other stuff with “satanic” or “witchcraft” content.
http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/bannedbooksweek/bookburning/21stcentury/21stcentury.cfm
May 11, 2008 at 9:46 am
I could write a book to be burned around the world. The more of my books burned, the higher my sales figures.
On a more serious note… I am afraid many people are ready for a new round of totalitarianism. We have a couple of generations that do not remember what it was like 60-70 years ago in Europe.
In the US and Europe, there is increasing surveillance of ordinary citizens “just in case”, more restrictions on freedom of speech (islamic cartoons, Internet censorship disguised as child abuse prevention), military style police hit squads, toughening gun legislation etc. The tools are being set up for the next fascist government.
I hope people and politicians will wake up in time and realize there is no happiness to be had down that road.
May 11, 2008 at 2:02 pm
Sasu, I’d class the situation as “Dangerous” right now. With what you’ve mentioned, a lot of the groundwork for totalitarianism has been laid - but with vigilence, and a ready willingness to stand up and say “No!”, then it may yet be averted.
Don’t fall into the trap of saying “it’s too late to do anything - so I won’t bother”.