Doji Grovesai

Intellectual Terrorism?

Terrorism:

The unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence by a person or an organized group against people or property with the intention of intimidating or coercing societies or governments, often for ideological or political reasons.

On my daily browse through various webcomics, I happened to read the rant by Seraphim on Megatokyo. To call me enraged would be an understatement.

Apparantly, Montgomery county doesn't like to read. They want to appoint a special committee to make sure that children don't get a hold of books that they deem to be morally questionable. The news article is here. You can also get a pdf copy here, and the whole "plan of action" (33 pages) here.

Since I'm on dial-up, I did not read the 33 page plan of action. But the letter really got to me on a few levels.

First, comparing this issue to the situation in Iraq? That's absolutely preposterous. Was Saddam Hussein bad? Certainly. He oppressed his people, committed inhuman acts against his own citizens, and (WMDs or not) wanted to carry that outside his own country. People did not have the right to choose, did not have the capacity to express themselves and did not have the right to even leave, under his regime. With "morally questionable books," just like television, everybody has the option to not view the "questionable" material. The ALA calls this the Freedom to Read and the Freedom to View statements. Apparantly choice isn't an issue with Montgomery county, as they need to have somebody choose for us. With that in place, citizens of Montgomery county would not have the right to choose their media, at least as far as the library is concerned.

The second issue would be their interpretation of "moral high ground." While christianity does impose a "higher standard" so to speak, than, say a hedonist with no regard for life, nowhere in the Bible (or any other holy writ of christianity that I know of) does it say to remove the capacity to choose from any individual. On top of that, the only way to build moral character is to actively choose to follow your values when faced with a decision that could make you go against them. Removing opposition is like weight training without weights: a lot of useless motion.

Last, this was a secret letter composed in a secret meeting (which was probably against the law - just a sidenote). Riddle me this: if you live in a state which is a bastion for the hyper-conservative, white, christian american, then WHY do you need a secret meeting for something like this? Unless, of course, the rest of the hyper-conservative, white, christians in Montgomery county think that you are out of line and that our rights to free speech and expression are more important that forcing a "moral high ground" on everybody (It was that kind of attitude that started the Inquisition, you know).

Thankfully, the council over there has voted this issue down several times. Hopefully the DA has some stiff fines for this "very moral" group that feels the need to break laws. Hopefully, Montgomery County's fortune continues to hold this well, as well as any other library that is threatened by intellectual terrorists like these.