When I read Fahrenheit 451 as a teenager, I never thought that I would witness something similar happening in the United States.
It appears to me that there is a large group of people in the United States who are falling into the trap of attempting to avoid pain. They are doing this by attempting to remove everything from their lives that they don’t like, or that makes them feel uncomfortable. It is easy to blame this on conservatives who are trying to promote “Christian values,” even though the values that they espouse are not really Christian, and are more like the cultural values of 1950s “Mad Men.” The sad truth, though, is that this is happening on both the right and the left. On the left, in universities across the country, people are attempting to stop open debate and discussion of any topic that might potentially “trigger” a student. Words like “America” (which suggests that the United States is more important than other places in North and South America), and “field” (which can suggest slavery to some), are included in a list of words to be avoided because they may cause some sensitive souls to feel unsafe or bring up other uncomfortable emotions. (See the recent Washington Post piece by George Will for more on this.)
Between World War I and World War II, Hitler rose to power in Germany. He recognized the power of information, and in 1933 created the Ministry of Propaganda to begin to control the media. The Minister of Propaganda was Joseph Goebbels, who made sure that any material that offered a negative view of Hitler or his government or their policies was silenced. He censored books, newspapers, and music. He saw to it that books that were written by Jewish authors were burned in great bonfires. On May 10, 1933, the government burned one-third of all the library holdings in the country. Speeches were given to say “No to decadence and moral corruption!”
Hitler’s object was to ensure that opposing viewpoints and information were suppressed, and Nazi power was strengthened.
A strange echo of these tactics is occurring in America today.
Legislators in Florida and several other states are passing bills to make illegal the use of certain words at certain times, and to discontinue the teaching of events in our history which make them uncomfortable. In Florida, the “Don’t Say Gay” Act (Its actual title is The Parental Rights in Education Act) stops teachers in kindergarten through third grade from saying anything about gender or sexual orientation in class. That makes it hard to discuss the interactions of families with two Moms or two Dads. The Stop WOKE Act (Stop Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees Act) doesn’t allow the examination of systemic racism in our culture, or our history. Books have been removed from libraries after a new state law required that all materials be “free of pornography” and “suited to student needs,” but didn’t provide any definitions for those terms. Teachers are afraid of losing their jobs, because they don’t have any clear guidance on how to interpret the law. Throughout the country, books that are objectionable to a small minority are being burned, and school board meetings are becoming chaotic.
There are two giant problems with what is happening here. First, and most obvious, we are decimating our freedom of speech. We all need to be able to express our thoughts to keep society learning from each other, and to ensure that we don’t repeat our earlier mistakes. But the second problem is that avoidance — trying to stay away from unpleasant experiences — doesn’t work. If someone is afraid of loud traffic, and stays away from streets in order to get some relief, they suffer. They can’t travel as easily, and soon they find other loud noises that bother them. They could end up staying in their home all the time to continue avoiding noise. They miss out on a natural process called extinction which allows them to experience noise as less unpleasant over time.
The same thing happens when we try to avoid thoughts or ideas that are uncomfortable. We end up making them worse. If we avoid all literature that expresses violence, small acts of violence take on a larger role in our minds. If we are uncomfortable with people who are different from us, soon we start noticing smaller differences that make us more uncomfortable.
No one wants to be uncomfortable. All of us recoil when we are burned and then try to avoid fire in the future. But avoidance can often make pain worse, not better. If one is anxious about going to work, the answer is not to avoid the office, but to face the anxiety and learn strategies to reduce its intensity. The same is true about the world that we live in. We will all experience difficulty. People will say ugly things, do harm, and act in ways that we despise. None of this means that we have the right to take away their freedom of speech. Our task is to speak up, to point out the issues, and to face the problems. Right now, we need to do this more than ever.
