Comical Misnomer of the Month

I was fascinated to learn that the pro-book-burning group leading the charge against this dangerous young-adult novel calls itself the "Christian Civil Liberties Union." 'Cause nothing says civil liberties like organizin' a good bookburnin'!

More here, including an amusing video.

[thanks, Anita!]

Comments

[Jeff Wiebe]

In my view the only real purpose a book burning serves is to remove access of those particular copies of the book from the possession of the persons who owned those particular copies. I guess it's fine if they want to burn books they no longer want. Doesn't much affect anyone else.

I guess a book-burning is also free speech, isn't it? (Honest question.) And the author & publishers should be delighted, since such activity and attention tends to increase sales and so on.

[Rogier]

Oh, I have no problem with people burning their own books. I propose the Christian Civil Liberties Union orders 10,000 copies of Baby Be-Bop from Amazon and uses them to build the biggest bonfire in West Bend history. No sweat. These folks just have to keep their jerrycans and matches away from the books owned by others, especially those owned by the community (the library).

[Phelps]

Yeah, I thought the same as Jeff. Are they burning their own books?

It's like when people were busting up Dixie Chicks CDs. I heard about people buying them just to bust them, and they seemed oblivious to the idea that they were putting money in their pockets to do it.

I wish that activists would do this with more stuff. Wouldn't it be great if all the hoplophobes would just try to buy up all the guns?

[hermesten]

"In my view the only real purpose a book burning serves is to remove access of those particular copies of the book from the possession of the persons who owned those particular copies."

I think you're confusing purpose with result. It seems obvious that the purpose is mostly to get attention and to feel righteous --though I doubt they'd characterize it that way. I suspect a good number of these people are smart enough to know what they're doing is counterproductive, but it is irrelevant to their motivations.

Maybe I'm giving them too much credit, but I find it difficult to believe that the people organizing these events, and a good number, if not all of the participants, are unaware of the associations and symbolism of book-burning. That suggests they have consciously decided to embrace or disregard such symbolism.

Either way it amounts to an assertion of "moral" superiority, and the practitioners acquire a "virtue" that transcends the practical effect of their actions. In fact, it is often the case that the more counterproductive or impractical the act, the greater the assumption of "virtue." This is not unique to religion, but is a practice of all dogmatists and true believers, whether they are fascists, commies, European Unionists, or ardent "capitalists."