Censorship

This is article #4 out of 5 for random week.

"All these people talk so eloquently about getting back to good old-fashioned values. Well, as an old poop I can remember back to when we had those old-fashioned values, and I say let's get back to the good old-fashioned First Amendment of the good old-fashioned Constitution of the United States -- and to hell with the censors! Give me knowledge or give me death!"

It is unbelievable that in 2011 censorship is something we have to deal with. Originally I wanted to write about self-censorship in video games. I had briefly touched upon that topic before but then I realized I would be paraphrasing a lot of what was already posted in those links at the bottom. I figured this topic tied more into my project Motherfucker Why You Reading anyways.

I read on Boing Boing today about an entrepreneur and university professor that successfully got Slaughter-House Five and Twenty Boy Summer banned from Missouri public schools. So it goes. In an editorial article his complaints over the books are all sexual in nature:

"In high school English classes, children are required to read and view material that should be classified as soft pornography.One such book is called "Speak." They also watch the movie. This is a book about a very dysfunctional family. Schoolteachers are losers, adults are losers and the cheerleading squad scores more than the football team. They have sex on Saturday night and then are goddesses at church on Sunday morning. The cheer squad also gets their group-rate abortions at prom time. As the main character in the book is alone with a boy who is touching her female parts, she makes the statement that this is what high school is supposed to feel like. The boy then rapes her on the next page. Actually, the book and movie both contain two rape scenes."
...
"Lastly, there is a book in the library recommended for reading called "Twenty Boy Summer." This book glorifies drunken teen parties, where teen girls lose their clothes in games of strip beer pong. In this book, drunken teens also end up on the beach, where they use their condoms to have sex. I confronted the school board with these issues at the June school board meeting. As far as I know, nothing has been done to address these issues to date. This is unacceptable, considering that most of the school board members and administrators claim to be Christian. How can Christian men and women expose children to such immorality? Parents, it is time you get involved!"

As an alumni of a catholic high-school I can personally vouch as these accounts being closer to reality than any pornography I have ever seen. Secondly, Scroggins is calling for outside intervention into the public school system appealing to people's religious beliefs. Shouldn't this be at least a little concerning?

"In English, children are also required to read a book called "Slaughterhouse Five." This is a book that contains so much profane language, it would make a sailor blush with shame. The "f word" is plastered on almost every other page. The content ranges from naked men and women in cages together so that others can watch them having sex to God telling people that they better not mess with his loser, bum of a son, named Jesus Christ."

In a book about the fire-bombing of a city, in a book where men soil themselves on the battle field over fear of being killed, in a book where the same men are stuffed into cattle car like freight, this persons complaint is over sex. Sex. In Wesley Scroggins twisted worldview, the worst thing a child can read about in a book is not mass destruction, war or death, but copulation.

In personal experience when somebody did not want me to read or consume something, there was usually more to the story. Kurt Vonnegut was a humanist, and as long as humanism has existed, religious people have had something to say about it. The reason why people like Wesley Scroggins do not want you to read is because it if in direct conflict with his personal beliefs. Scroggins and the superintendent are making a decision for everyone else because of they think is right for everybody else.

I sometimes worry that the only reason why the story cam up is because it's taking place at a public school. At my private catholic high school I wonder how many conversations went on behind closed doors about books, ideas, and class discussions that were to be avoided because they opposed those ideas ideologically. I hope kids will learn what books are on the banned book list. I hope the ones that are curious enough will get a copy of the book will enjoy it. I hope the knowledge that they have pushed past the boundaries set by their narrow minded authority figures opens their minds.

Wesley Scroggins, when I think of the people that undermine our academic system and fail to challenge us to think critically about the world around us, I think of people like you.

Related links:
Frank Zappa on Crossfire
Author of Twenty Boy Summer, Sarah Ockler's site

Announcement Update

Recently I have had inquires regarding the direction of Always Avoid Alliteration. I wanted to take some time to clear things up and let readers know what to expect. Ideally, when this project first started I wanted to post five days a week. Background work on this site (tweaking html as well as the blogger code for example) takes up some of this time, as well as making sure the posts are a quality of the highest standard.

Considering that I will be here, you shouldn't
feel bad that I will be gone for a little while.

In September I will be going to Freiburg, Germany for a year. I will still update while I am there, but there will be some downtime while I first get adjusted. In order to work around this I have done two things. First, I have already written articles which will auto-post while I am away. Second, I have contacted people about being guest writers for the site. Their knowledge and interests coincide with languages, but I am also working out letting them make posts that are loosely related, or pertaining to Cognitive Science or their interests. Also while I am in Germany there of course be a larger influx of German language learning posts; considering my primary goal while I am there is to become fluent in the language. Be sure to keep posted!

Next week will also be an "off topic week". I don't know what I'm going to call it yet, but there will be five days of posts consisting of topics that don't necessarily have to do with the site. Some of the topics have briefly come up in other posts and I have gotten a lot of positive reactions to those so I figure why not cater to the audience? Topics will include social engineering, and censorship in video games. This will also give me time to come up with some more material pertaining to language, and Cog Sci.

If I could get published, this is how the cover of
the book would look like when you hold it open.

Finally, I am working on a book. It has been coming along nicely now, and when it is finished it will be available to download for free! A lot of information I have ingested over the years has come from the Internet, and as such has been free. I am simply repaying the favor after all these years. The title will be 'Motherfucker Why You Reading?' Not only is it a throwback to a Bill Hicks joke, it is also a reference to an incident I had in middle school. Another reason I am giving the book away for free is that even if I could ever get published, I probably couldn't keep the title, and frankly if I can't write a book with the word Motherfucker in it, then I would rather not write a book at all. Motherfucker Why You Reading will be about my experiences facing incompetent teachers, policies, and anti-intellectualism in the American school system. I have been through three catholic schools, two public schools, one of which was ranked in the bottom five in the state, as well as a liberal arts college and state university. I figure I have enough "academic diversity" to pull through something like this. I promise that the book will be as entertaining, informative, and funny as a free book can be.

Thanks for reading!