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| June 2018 new book shelves, Fairfax County Public Library in Virginia |
Banned Books Week Features Only Leftist Books
The above video is an insightful and keen-eyed examination of how culture controls the flow of information, specially book circulation.
I live
in Fairfax County, VA, and the Fairfax County Public Library (FCPL) used
to have a fair collection. However, about 10 years ago, someone in the library
hierarchy okayed purging thousands of older books, to make way for new ones. That's the delicate balance of libraries everywhere. Ideally, libraries
contain a well-rounded history of our past, plus cutting edge peaks of insight at our present and potential future. This appears to be no longer the case in
FCPLs.
The great book purge wasn’t formally announced, but some keen-eyed community journalist got photos of FCPL dumpsters full of old books. I suspect such a story would not be published today. I can only imagine what might have been dispatched to those dumpsters, tired and damaged books sure, but also what hidden gems? I have often reserved the only copy of an old classic in the collection. So what happens when it wears out, get damaged or lost?
Until about 2009 the FCPL collection was far more balanced. Since then most new books are philosophically left of center, increasingly, far left of center. Notably, books critically analyzing Islam have become functionally extinct in the new book additions to the FCPL collection.
Most of the branch libraries have two giant book sales each year. A revenue generated culling could have sold the dumpster books in the sales, instead of tossing away thousands of dollars worth of books. Chantilly Regional Library usually nets $23,000-$25,000 in their spring AND fall sales, mostly donated books. It's rather hard not to infer an element of Fahrenheit 451 censorship afoot in the great purge.
As of last fall, even the joyful freedom to recirculate older books in these giant sales is dying a swift death as the Library Board demanded each library’s charity that manages the book sales( the profits of which fund new counters, tables, chairs, technology, etc.) must now supply onerous financial records of their sales that even the federal government does not require for non-profits' tax returns. Alas, many of the Friends of the Library groups have closed up shop. Although Chantilly Library, the most successful in our area, is putting up with these demands.
Some of the BEST books I’ve bought in the past 10 years have been from these sales. Many of them would be on the Robert Spencer's invisible list of banned books.
The book sales are a specially dynamic pipeline for private booksellers too, who then resell them on Amazon, Abe’s Books, etc., and until this dire FCPL accounting demand, had been the most annoying change in recent years in the giant book sales, for these enterprising booksellers clogged up the aisles with their boxes of books as they swooped in ahead of others with their little scanning devices that give them book value instantly. These booksellers often purchased $300-$900 each in used books per sale! so the Friends groups put up with them. Where will these sellers now get old books in such an accessible manner?
The results of limiting access to divergent ideas is another way of controlling history. There's also no publicly available list of the titles that were purged from the library.
One of the more unnerving aspects of this brave new world is the children's New Picture Books section. On a recent trip to Chantilly Regional Library with my five year-old grandson, I found one lighthearted new book, about a bear’s nose, all the rest dealt with pretty heavy subjects, i.e. refugees living in war zones, starvation in Africa, what it's like to be different, racism, myriad ways of being unhappy but precious little about the sweet zaniness that sparks childhood joy and imagination.
There are children that have experienced unbearable trauma, and at an older age good books should be a lifeline for understanding pain. However, I contend there's a therapeutic quality in savoring gentle normalcy. I also believe it's best not to dwell on the 'real life' bad, specially in the 1-to-5 age group. Even board books, for the 1-2 year olds are now being politicized. It sets the stage for victim-hood, instead of empowerment. Healthy people do best when they believe themselves capable, not victims.
In the old days, most children's literature was about fair play, tricksters, how the earth works, bad things that happen to the foolish, fun and games, and how to survive mistakes with blossoming wisdom. Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit books cover that spectrum with big words, exquisite artwork and delightfully fun character names that trip off the reader's tongue with lighthearted whimsy.
I welcome books on a variety of childhood experiences,
but not to the near exclusion of the delightful buoyancy of this age.
Chantilly Library has been my refuge, my anchor and where I have gone in times of trouble, personal and civic. It was the second place I went after 9-11. The first was Borders, where the only book on Islam was by by Karen Armstrong, an English ex-nun, now convert to Sufi Islam, whose book was a hagiography, so it was little help in my understanding of what just happened in NYC, the Pentagon and Pennsylvania.
Whomever controls books--what's published, distribution, accessibility of differing viewpoints to all strata of society-- limits or expands our known universe. Wisdom and dependable scholarship are needed now more than ever.
P.S.
The great book purge wasn’t formally announced, but some keen-eyed community journalist got photos of FCPL dumpsters full of old books. I suspect such a story would not be published today. I can only imagine what might have been dispatched to those dumpsters, tired and damaged books sure, but also what hidden gems? I have often reserved the only copy of an old classic in the collection. So what happens when it wears out, get damaged or lost?
Until about 2009 the FCPL collection was far more balanced. Since then most new books are philosophically left of center, increasingly, far left of center. Notably, books critically analyzing Islam have become functionally extinct in the new book additions to the FCPL collection.
Most of the branch libraries have two giant book sales each year. A revenue generated culling could have sold the dumpster books in the sales, instead of tossing away thousands of dollars worth of books. Chantilly Regional Library usually nets $23,000-$25,000 in their spring AND fall sales, mostly donated books. It's rather hard not to infer an element of Fahrenheit 451 censorship afoot in the great purge.
As of last fall, even the joyful freedom to recirculate older books in these giant sales is dying a swift death as the Library Board demanded each library’s charity that manages the book sales( the profits of which fund new counters, tables, chairs, technology, etc.) must now supply onerous financial records of their sales that even the federal government does not require for non-profits' tax returns. Alas, many of the Friends of the Library groups have closed up shop. Although Chantilly Library, the most successful in our area, is putting up with these demands.
Some of the BEST books I’ve bought in the past 10 years have been from these sales. Many of them would be on the Robert Spencer's invisible list of banned books.
The book sales are a specially dynamic pipeline for private booksellers too, who then resell them on Amazon, Abe’s Books, etc., and until this dire FCPL accounting demand, had been the most annoying change in recent years in the giant book sales, for these enterprising booksellers clogged up the aisles with their boxes of books as they swooped in ahead of others with their little scanning devices that give them book value instantly. These booksellers often purchased $300-$900 each in used books per sale! so the Friends groups put up with them. Where will these sellers now get old books in such an accessible manner?
The results of limiting access to divergent ideas is another way of controlling history. There's also no publicly available list of the titles that were purged from the library.
I propose citizens donate books to the library that they regard as essential to understanding the world. Authors: donate a copy of your books to your local libraries too! Many times I buy a book because I first read it in the library. I advise vigilant follow-up of your donation to ensure it make it into the collection
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| New releases, Fairfax County Public Library June 2018 |
If you were to peruse the New Release bookcases you would find a
astonishingly disproportionate number of them in the Dewey decimal system from 300-340 range, specifically cultural war issues from the extreme left of the spectrum. It's as if the library is salting every issue with far left ideology, normalizing it, equalizing its voice in the stacks, while purging conservative perspectives. Net result: a distorted portrait of who we are, and where we've been.
One of the more unnerving aspects of this brave new world is the children's New Picture Books section. On a recent trip to Chantilly Regional Library with my five year-old grandson, I found one lighthearted new book, about a bear’s nose, all the rest dealt with pretty heavy subjects, i.e. refugees living in war zones, starvation in Africa, what it's like to be different, racism, myriad ways of being unhappy but precious little about the sweet zaniness that sparks childhood joy and imagination.
There are children that have experienced unbearable trauma, and at an older age good books should be a lifeline for understanding pain. However, I contend there's a therapeutic quality in savoring gentle normalcy. I also believe it's best not to dwell on the 'real life' bad, specially in the 1-to-5 age group. Even board books, for the 1-2 year olds are now being politicized. It sets the stage for victim-hood, instead of empowerment. Healthy people do best when they believe themselves capable, not victims.
 |
| Beatrix Potter's children's books |
In the old days, most children's literature was about fair play, tricksters, how the earth works, bad things that happen to the foolish, fun and games, and how to survive mistakes with blossoming wisdom. Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit books cover that spectrum with big words, exquisite artwork and delightfully fun character names that trip off the reader's tongue with lighthearted whimsy.
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| Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter |
Chantilly Library has been my refuge, my anchor and where I have gone in times of trouble, personal and civic. It was the second place I went after 9-11. The first was Borders, where the only book on Islam was by by Karen Armstrong, an English ex-nun, now convert to Sufi Islam, whose book was a hagiography, so it was little help in my understanding of what just happened in NYC, the Pentagon and Pennsylvania.
Whomever controls books--what's published, distribution, accessibility of differing viewpoints to all strata of society-- limits or expands our known universe. Wisdom and dependable scholarship are needed now more than ever.
 |
| Learning what works and doesn't work in life with Peter Rabbit |
The point of Robert Spencer’s video on banned books is there is
NO FORMAL LIST of banned conservative books, because libraries, book reviewers,
talk shows, even schools just ignore works that don't conform to the philosophy of post-modern multiculturalism. If you ignore them there's zip buzz about the ideas
they present.
FCPL has 100 copies of Bob Woodward’s, Fear-Trump in the White House 2018. I put my name on the reserve list in September and there were 632 ahead of me. Every newspaper, talk show, cable news show interviewed him, chatting about his book. That’s what buzz generates.
Fairfax County Public Libraries, in Virginia, near Washington DC does NOT have Robert Spencer’s latest book, The History of Jihad from Muhammad to ISIS, or the one before that, Confessions of an Islamophobe. Nor has CNN, ABC, public radio/tv reviewed these books. This is hidden censorship. If authors have bad ideas, don't hide that, instead, debate why or why not.
By the way, FCPL has six books by Robert Spencer, none later than 2009 publication date.
(Now ex) Congressman Keith Ellison proposed that books not approved by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a radical left organization, should no longer be available for sale on Amazon. In another life, a sitting congressman making such an unconstitutional suggestion would have been unthinkable. We are barreling past soft censorship at mach speed, toward something history has shown always turns out badly.
That's the problem when you flirt with passionate feelings based on nothing but passionate feelings.
https://garydemar.com/muslim-congressman-keith-ellison-demands-amazon-stop-selling-books-the-splc-dislikes/
For some time I have been compiling a list of books I discovered the FCPL doesn't have in its collection.
Partial list of books NOT in FCPL collection:
-The Rational Bible-Exodus: God, Slavery and Freedom 2018 by Dennis
Prager
-Enoch was Right 2018 by Raheem Kassam
FCPL has 100 copies of Bob Woodward’s, Fear-Trump in the White House 2018. I put my name on the reserve list in September and there were 632 ahead of me. Every newspaper, talk show, cable news show interviewed him, chatting about his book. That’s what buzz generates.
Fairfax County Public Libraries, in Virginia, near Washington DC does NOT have Robert Spencer’s latest book, The History of Jihad from Muhammad to ISIS, or the one before that, Confessions of an Islamophobe. Nor has CNN, ABC, public radio/tv reviewed these books. This is hidden censorship. If authors have bad ideas, don't hide that, instead, debate why or why not.
By the way, FCPL has six books by Robert Spencer, none later than 2009 publication date.
(Now ex) Congressman Keith Ellison proposed that books not approved by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a radical left organization, should no longer be available for sale on Amazon. In another life, a sitting congressman making such an unconstitutional suggestion would have been unthinkable. We are barreling past soft censorship at mach speed, toward something history has shown always turns out badly.
That's the problem when you flirt with passionate feelings based on nothing but passionate feelings.
https://garydemar.com/muslim-congressman-keith-ellison-demands-amazon-stop-selling-books-the-splc-dislikes/
For some time I have been compiling a list of books I discovered the FCPL doesn't have in its collection.
Partial list of books NOT in FCPL collection:
-The Rational Bible-Exodus: God, Slavery and Freedom 2018 by Dennis
Prager
-Enoch was Right 2018 by Raheem Kassam
-All Out War-The Plot to Destroy Trump 2018 by Edward Klein
-American Pravda—My Fight For the Truth in an Era of Fake News 2018
by James O’Keefe
by James O’Keefe
-Killing the Deep State-The Fight to Save President Trump 2018 by
Jerome Corsi
Jerome Corsi
-The University We Need: Reforming American Higher Education 2018 by
Warren Treadgold
Warren Treadgold
-Red Famine: Stalin’s War on Ukraine by Ann Applebaum 2017. FCPL
has just 2 copies of a book written by a Pulitzer prize winning
Washington Post columnist. Yet it has 100 copies of Bob Woodward’s
latest, a critique of President Trump, a subject examined in detail throughout the mainstream media. Applebaum's book reveals
shocking, little known details of the catastrophe that was the USSR
-The Tyranny of Silence 2016 by Flemming Rose
-See Something Say Nothing 2016 by Philip Haney
-The Red Green Axis: Refugees, Immigration and the Agenda to Erase
America 2015 by Jim Simpson
-No books or videos after 2015 by Dinesh D’Souza, including his 2016
blockbuster documentary film, Hillary's America & Death of a
Nation
has just 2 copies of a book written by a Pulitzer prize winning
Washington Post columnist. Yet it has 100 copies of Bob Woodward’s
latest, a critique of President Trump, a subject examined in detail throughout the mainstream media. Applebaum's book reveals
shocking, little known details of the catastrophe that was the USSR
-The Tyranny of Silence 2016 by Flemming Rose
-See Something Say Nothing 2016 by Philip Haney
-The Red Green Axis: Refugees, Immigration and the Agenda to Erase
America 2015 by Jim Simpson
-No books or videos after 2015 by Dinesh D’Souza, including his 2016
blockbuster documentary film, Hillary's America & Death of a
Nation
-Credentials to Destroy—How and Why Education Became Weapon to
Destroy 2013 by Robin S. Eubanks
-Echos of Communism 2011 by Ileana Johnson Paugh
-Willing Accomplices 2011 by Kent Clizbe
-There are no books by Trevor Loudon, notably his breakout book,
The Enemies Within, about communist infiltration of the U.S. Congress,
right across the Potomac. Ironically there is a book with the
same title about the Cambridge University spies of the 1930s-1960s,
how they embedded themselves in the top echelon of UK society, just
as the communists are doing in the U.S. Congress today
-Shadow World: Resurgent Russia, The Global New Left, and Radical
Islam 2008 by Robert Chandler
-The Punjab Trap—Pham Xuan An: The Spy Who Didn’t Love Us by Luke
Hunt -Also not available on Amazon. It's about the betrayal of
Americans in Vietnam
Destroy 2013 by Robin S. Eubanks
-Echos of Communism 2011 by Ileana Johnson Paugh
-Willing Accomplices 2011 by Kent Clizbe
-There are no books by Trevor Loudon, notably his breakout book,
The Enemies Within, about communist infiltration of the U.S. Congress,
right across the Potomac. Ironically there is a book with the
same title about the Cambridge University spies of the 1930s-1960s,
how they embedded themselves in the top echelon of UK society, just
as the communists are doing in the U.S. Congress today
-Shadow World: Resurgent Russia, The Global New Left, and Radical
Islam 2008 by Robert Chandler
-The Punjab Trap—Pham Xuan An: The Spy Who Didn’t Love Us by Luke
Hunt -Also not available on Amazon. It's about the betrayal of
Americans in Vietnam
This list does not include the many missing books not included in FCPL's collection before I realized there was a pattern unfolding.
I share my list of special books and why they've made a difference to me--in comments, editorials wherever I can. I must now kick into the next stage by sharing them with teachers, librarians, friends and politicians.
The genius of these propaganda patterns is how it's made Ray Bradbury's fireman character in his Fahrenheit 451 redundant. His firemen no longer need to physically intimidate by rushing around burning books. Now all the state controlled schools and media just ignore what doesn't fit the acceptable narrative.
Books at their best inspire, confound, push us to understand the world, and ourselves. Without this push-pull of ideas we become mynah birds, chirping birdbrains.
I share my list of special books and why they've made a difference to me--in comments, editorials wherever I can. I must now kick into the next stage by sharing them with teachers, librarians, friends and politicians.
The genius of these propaganda patterns is how it's made Ray Bradbury's fireman character in his Fahrenheit 451 redundant. His firemen no longer need to physically intimidate by rushing around burning books. Now all the state controlled schools and media just ignore what doesn't fit the acceptable narrative.
Books at their best inspire, confound, push us to understand the world, and ourselves. Without this push-pull of ideas we become mynah birds, chirping birdbrains.
