Books and why you should never ever burn them!

It never ceases to amaze me the amount of general unreason that surrounds us.

For example as a child we might name inanimate objects such as dolls and teddy bears. Possibbly as an adult this may be seen as mildly sentimental. Apparently to name other inanimate objects is just plain essentric! (my laptop is called Zefrum after Zefrum Cochran who invented warp drive, which is ironic since if it went any slower it would slip into a coma!) Although people have been known to name their cars and ships etc are named.

You see by naming an item you seem to be suggesting that an 'it' has an identity-a personhood. Basically it is the start of anthropomophism; applying human like qualities to that which is not human. Theologians have accused humans of doing it to God.

Now I have no problem at all with essentricity! I tend to pride myself on being such. My main essentricity is my precious books. (They have actually been around longer than Bartimaeus (Barty) my lizard who I also love dearly) I have been a devoted reader since about the age of 10/11 as such my concern for the safety of my books is paramount. Therefore fire is a tremendous threat and that film Faranheite 451 was absolutly harrowing for me!

Books are not evil. Neither are they 'alive' so burning them will not 'kill' them. People, however, can be evil.

Let me explain. A book is written. It is distributed to the people. The content of the book is irrelevant at this stage as so far nobody has read it!

Now lets say the author of the book is a magnificent, eloquent and splendid polititian, the true King of Britain and the leader of the greatest political party in the Land (Nick Griffin); one just might be under vagest of impessions that this person is something of a 'fan'. (to put it lightly). Consequently, even though the content of the book is merely a publication of Nick's shopping lists (in his own handwriting!) the aformentioned 'fan' thinks it is a sacred document (It would be). It is doubtful that anyone who is not a fan would consider the reproduction of Nick Griffin's shopping lists of particular value. (How can you SAY that. Nick wrote them!)

The point is a book in isolation is just a book. The contents of that book only has influence once it is read. This takes a person to read it. Now for that book to be 'evil' in and of itself the content would have to have the same effect upon pretty much every person reading it. Like drinking bleach! You would expect to be somewhat sick! However, this does not follow with books. Mein Kampf is a prime example. Supposedly Hitler's blueprint for the Third Reich and the Nazi 'bible', but other academics have read it and they have not turned into Nazis! Same for the Turner Diarys or the Protocols of the learned elders of Zion. Yet these are books that we are commonly told not to read as they are evil. Not true. The people who wrote them may leave much to be desired, but people have free will and should be left to think for themselves.

More contreversial but never the less true is the Qu'ran. As the holy book of Islam the left would not have it criticised. Yet we know the contents! Does this make it an evil book. I do not think so. However, it is interesting to note that the prophets of Judaism (Moses) and Christianity (Jesus) were both educated men, able and knowlagable of what they were passing on to their people. Muhammad was illiterate. The Qu'ran was 'transmitted' to him in a cave I think by an 'angel'. Be warned-The devil takes many forms whose to say this 'angel' wasn't one of them.