(2022-02-09) Solana Lets Burn Books

Mike Solana: Let's Burn Books. Among acts that evoke a sense of outrage — even horror — in those who consider themselves educated, book burning is surely near the top of the list.

In America, a broadly-shared belief in the value of free speech has kept our metaphorical bonfires confined to a smolder. But today, with that value so greatly eroded, the nation has spiraled into a state of perpetual ideological battle, perhaps most visibly waged in our public schools.

Welcome to the culture war.

it is certainly true a grassroots effort to ban books that fall under the loosely defined category of Critical Race Theory from schools has evolved from angry Twitter chatter into a real, if nascent, political force.

*It’s also hardly confined to the political right.

In Washington state’s small Mukilteo County, To Kill a Mockingbird was just removed from ninth grade curriculum on grounds the famously anti-racist work is racist.*

It has also frankly been surreal to read about a Republican war on education while living in San Francisco, my overwhelmingly Democratic city. Here, in total defiance of data on Covid safety, classrooms were shuttered for over a year while the school board tried to rename buildings like Abraham Lincoln High on grounds the president who ended slavery was racist. Further positions taken by the San Francisco school board in the name of regressive race politics have included the elimination of advanced math, a targeting of Advanced Placement courses, and the end of merit-based admissions at our top high school.

It’s worth considering the unique importance we ascribe to books. What exactly is a book but information, and does the leather binding really make the information special? This is a significant question, because beyond the classroom is a broader national story of now-pervasive censorship online.

Our problem today is not that America’s political right stands opposed to free speech. Our problem is everyone stands opposed to free speech, and what becomes of a liberal nation that no longer values the fundamental tenets of liberalism?

No one should be forced to believe the popular anything. But given what is obviously ideological warfare from all sides, the choice is censor or be censored, and I’m tired of pretending that’s not our reality

An acceleration of our present ideological war will absolutely result in a worse world, but the acceleration will also put a price on authoritarianism. Then, who knows, sober minds from all ideological camps may finally even look around and remember the benefit of liberal values. But until they do? Sorry, I’m over it. (accelerationism)