There has been a
scandal in British retail book-sale business lately, but the scandal is,
contrary to popular opinion not that WHSmith has found lots of controversial
novels among their titles, but that they have chosen to remove those titles
from their assortment. They have exposed themselves as eager supporters of
censorship.
When you read their
press releases and the explanation they give their customers, on and off their
website you find one bizarre and sick statement after another. Yes, it safe to
say they are practically lined up. There have been many cases like this
throughout history, where mainstream citizens impose their narrow morality on
everybody else. It wasn't acceptable then and isn't now.
An oppressive
society always blame art in order to distract people from what those in charge
should be blamed for and this is certainly such a case. Established retailers
and publishers have constantly supported this vile practice.
A guy by the name of
Jeremy Wilson in the online magazine Kernel eagerly call for censorship, and
doing so without a single original and free thought in his head. He speaks of
filth. What he writes is filth. Find themes most objectionable in people’s
eyes, distort the truth, make things up to support your tyranny of the mind.
The true scandal is that people like him and those eager beavers at WHSmith and
elsewhere have any influence what so ever. The hysteria grows, as it often does
in cases like this and all independent titles, those not published by
established publishers come under scrutiny, which is exactly what the
established publishers desire. I wouldn't put it beyond them to have planned
and actually orchestrated this.
There are lots of
talk about ending censorship in foreign countries, but very little of ending it
here, in the west, where it is just as bad. It's about money, of course, but also about power and influence.
Censorship is wrong,
without exceptions. Controversial titles should be hailed as a great thing, not
removed from public eye. It should be proudly displayed. It is all the boring and bland mainstream titles that should be thrown on the garbage heap where they belong.
