No matter what group you’re a part of or what ideological leanings you have, never expect for the enlightened to capitulate to your cries of wanting specific literature to be banned.
Talon Marks has received a rather pathetic letter in the mail from the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan bitching and moaning about a particular novel titled “The Slave Player” by Megan Allen and calling on other colleges to complain about it and get it censored.
The KKK was hoping to take advantage of the stereotypical, overly sensitive college liberals who call for safe spaces and obviously failed when they sent the letter to Talon Marks.
Not a single soul should be trying to tell anyone what it is they should and should not read.
If you disagree with a particular text, you either ignore it and move on with your life, or you grow an intellectual spine and learn to refute it with text of your own.
In this free speaking society where ideas are able to flow freely no matter how nice or how repulsive they are, you must learn to take an academic and democratic stance and refute ideas with intellectual rigor.
The Klan that sent us the letter doesn’t seem to understand that the right that they have to cheer racial obscenities at rallies is the same right that is given to their opposition to mock them.
The free flow of literature is an important aspect in our society for three reasons:
It doesn’t allow the government to suppress books it dislikes
It doesn’t allow political movements to suppress the books of its ideological opponents
It allows us not only to write but most importantly, it allows us to read any books we like
These three reasons are key for an enlightened and democratic society to function properly.
It puts any sort of authoritarian tendencies in check, whether it comes from the right or left side of the political spectrum.
If your ideas can’t withstand some highbrow mockery or criticism within literature, then maybe you should rethink if those same ideas are even worth holding or expressing.
This is true for any ideology whether it be religious, political or philosophical.
So, if anyone shouts for books or pamphlets to be banned, understand that they need to be laughed at and treated with contempt for having a stance that disrespects the diversity of opinion that creates academia.
In the same spirit that can be used to pick up Thomas Dixion’s novel “The Clansman” and read it in however manner we see fit, they should use that same spirit to read Megan Allen’s “The Slave Player” in however manner they see fit.
