NP Mein Kampf (was NP another stoopid list ...

[jbor at bigpond.com]

_Mein Kampf_ is banned in Germany, I believe, and I can understand why. 
It's a gibberish rant for the most part and not "harmful" in and of 
itself, but in a symbolic way it serves as a rallying cry for modern 
neo-Nazi thugs and groups.

It's still widely sold - I believe there was some controversy recently 
about where the royalties go, or should go. Apparently the closest 
living relative of Hitler in Germany doesn't want a bar of it. I think 
I heard also that the publishers forward all royalties to a Holocaust 
survivors' support foundation. My memory of the news report is a bit 
hazy and I could be wrong on the details, but it was on the radio here 
last week.

On the "survey" itself, I wonder if the academics and politicians 
surveyed knew that they were going to be labelled as "conservatives" 
and held up to ridicule for their selections. They weren't calling for 
book-burnings after all, merely asked to indicate which books had 
caused "harm". It can't be denied that some of the books on the list 
were embraced by regimes and individuals that have caused, and still 
cause, great harm (Social Darwinism, Nazism, Stalinism, the Gang of 
Four, Pol Pot, capitalism et al.) And I could imagine another media 
report which might (mis)construe another fifteen individuals' 
condemnation of the list and the participants as an endorsement of 
_Mein Kampf_ or Stalinism, for example.

The issues of censorship and freedom of speech aren't as clear cut as 
the libertarians would have you believe. Books and movies are still 
banned, even in supposedly "progressive" or "liberal" Western nations, 
but moreso obviously under sterner civil jurisdictions. Even 'Harry 
Potter' ends up on the banned list in schools in Utah or wherever. And 
I wonder how comfortable some people would be nowadays to allow their 
children open access to, say, 'The Protocols of the Elders of Zion'.

One wonders what the eventual impact of this and future generations' 
soaking up holus bolus the nonsense of _The Da Vinci Code_ might be. 
Now there's a book that should be burnt, if you ask me.

best