Banned Books

[rohirrim TR]

Power still corrupts.

[hectorberlioz]

Originally Posted by brownjenkins

Thank god for that!

The weaker religion becomes, the stronger humanity becomes.

The weaker religion becomes, the more insane people will become.

[brownjenkins]

Originally Posted by hectorberlioz

The weaker religion becomes, the more insane people will become.

Humans are all insane, but that's an insanity I can live with.

[hectorberlioz]

Originally Posted by brownjenkins

Humans are all insane, but that's an insanity I can live with.

Ok, that's fine with me...but don't come to me, complaining about "heartless thugs" who take your life...oh wait, you wouldn't be going to anyone if they did that to you.

[trolls' bane]

I don't know if this has been mentioned, but...

I find it extremely ironic that Fahrenheit 451 had certain words censored in some school districts.

[Earniel]

The side-discussion about religion has been split off and merged into the thread 'Theological opinions part 2' in GM.

[Mari]

At the moment there is a discussion going on about Mein Kampf, which is banned here in the Netherlands, and the Koran. There was a stupid politician saying the Koran should be banned be if Mein Kampf is, because they both lead to bad things. (I wasn't back at the time the politician said it, so I don't know what his exact argumentation was) Now there is a guy who said that you shouldn't ban the Koran and for that matter, you shouldn't ban Mein Kampf either.
Off course, the Islamic people were rather upset to have their Holy Book be likened to a horrible book like Mein Kampf and others saying that if the Koran should be banned because it could lead to terrorism, they should do the same with the Bible and the Tora etc.
Now I don't feel you should ban the Koran or Bible, because it is not preaching terrorism, but some people seem to really believe in this.
Yesterday we had a discussion about the banning of Mein Kampf and it is not illegal to posses Mein Kampf or to import it or something, so we felt that it is more to satisfy all those who suffered during WWII, than because the government really doesn't want anyone to read it.
However, reading through this thread, it seems to me that most banned books are banned because there was a group of people unhappy with it. I was wondering if there where many books that were pro-actively banned by the government, because they felt it was not fit for "the people".

[brownjenkins]

It's always bad to ban ideas, because it gives them more power than they often deserve.

Mein Kampf didn't make Nazi Germany arise, it was just another symptom of a much bigger social movement. The same is true of religious books. People flock to them because they fit the way they see the world, as opposed to the texts changing the way people see the world.

Basically, you can only convert someone who is ripe for conversion.

[Mari]

true, but in that case if you ban the books and the ideas with it, you can try to convert them to another way. I've never read Mein Kampf, but apparently it's rather persuasive.
Personally I don't feel the need to read a book that has lead to the deaths of millions.
I was just astounded that one would put the Koran at the same level of Mein Kampf.