It’s good to have an instinctive reaction against censorship. Still, we should ban some books for some people in some circumstances.
The phrase “book banning” conjures up images of Puritans, McCarthyism, and even Nazis. It’s very un-American.
A series of Supreme Court decisions starting in the 1950s overturned efforts to censor content and affirmed the rights of adults to read what they want – with some minor exceptions. Importantly, they also affirmed that states have the right to protect children from certain material.
That seems to have been a strong consensus ever since. Until now.
How the consensus is fading
The idea that adults should have the right to read what they want in most cases, but that it’s reasonable to hide some things from children, has been challenged in at least two ways.
- Critics have falsely labeled efforts to restrict content available to children as “book bans.” This is dishonest because the argument over banning books has always made a distinction between content for children and content for adults. To gloss over that distinction misrepresents the issue. It is perfectly appropriate to restrict what children have access to.
- There’s growing support for the idea that the government can decide what content is mis-, dis-, or mal-information, and pressure social media companies and publishers to censor it.
That second concept is horrifying and straight out of a totalitarian playbook. We do not want to give the government the right to determine what can and can’t be said, or what information citizens are allowed to view. (Except in some cases, as mentioned below.)
When should we ban books?
I gave this article the provocative title, “Yes, we should ban books.” What do I mean by that?
First, it is appropriate for parents and communities to regulate what content is available to children. As I noted above, we shouldn’t call that a “book ban.”
Second, some content should be illegal even for adults. Child pornography comes to mind. The government should probably ban something like “How to make a nuclear bomb in your basement,” although reasonable people can differ on that. No matter how you cut it, there are some limits even on what adults should have access to.
The conclusion is that while our excellent free speech culture might lead us to have an instinctive negative reaction to the concept of “book bans,” we have to look a little closer to make sure we understand what’s going on. In some situations, we should ban books for certain people.
In other news, I just published a book that should not be banned. What is a Customer Data Platform? And why should I care? You can get the paperback from Amazon with that link, or you can download the e-book version right now.
