'tis the season for book burning

I was thinking today about the people that have made it their job (or is it their hobby? I'm not sure if it's really a paid position, as it's likely something done as either part of a school board task list or else involves a volunteer "committee" of some sort) to sit down with literature they consider blasphemous and count each individual instance of "shit," "fuck" or "God damn," along with the number of times people use drugs, have sex or do other "unsavory" acts throughout the work ... and tally them up and write reports that give these specific numbers. That seems like an unnecessarily large task.

I really can't imagine feeling so passionate about hating specific works of art that I would take it upon myself to make it a full time job to prevent them from existing or being created. Also, this kind of toxic focus spreads like wildfire. No good can come of it.

Considering how traumatizing these people consider books like Tom Sawyer or Less Than Zero, I also can't imagine their work on counting instances of heroin use the "n" word would really contribute much to a positive mental state. To me, it sounds like a waste of time. It's the same way I feel about people that are not gay but just hate gay people trying to prevent them from living normal lives ... why do they care? For the most part, if you hate something, you can make choices that help you avoid it. If you don't like books about heroin, don't read them. And if you don't want your kids to read them, you're probably out of luck, especially since if you are the type of militant, closed-minded, control freak person that thinks destroying something someone else created, whether you agree with it or not, is your right as a human being, you probably are also the type of person that is going to instill the same passionate hatred in your kids. Either that, or your kids are going to see you're out of your mind and do the exact opposite of what you want them to do, thus ruining your efforts.

Really, either side of the censorship battle is a losing one, whether you are the censure or the one being censored. Why? Because not even the loudest, most obnoxious person can stop people from thinking for themselves. So, let's call a stalemate already or at least focus on something objective that can actually have a winner.