THE 1984 by George Orwell has not finished positioning itself as an oracle of our time. Thought policing, Newspeak, the revision of history, fake news and the intrusion of the State into the brains of citizens have long since deserted its literary universe to upset our daily lives. Artificial intelligence heavy with threats and mysteries completes to complete its theories. As for censorship, it participates in the dystopian equation. Big Brother darts the round eye of his camera on everyone and castigates anyone out of line.
Today, we rightly condemn the excesses of the woke movement in its calls for the boycott of works because of bad morals of the creator, use of the word “n” for a book title or inadequacy with the time. in progress. The government of the Coalition avenir Québec was also walking on the same path with its cancellation of a pro-life event at the Center des congrès du Québec. Whether or not we disagree with the positions defended by anti-abortion groups does not change the matter. This is to muzzle the opposing opinion which refers to the pages of Orwell.
All sorts of recent incidents that have come to ban books dealing with suicide or child pornography — even with the aim of denouncing them — have sent warning signals in our lands as elsewhere. Attention danger ! Quebec had brandished many anathemas under Duplessis, against Jehovah’s Witnesses among others.
Attacking the left without seeing what is happening on the right or vice versa only fuels the climate of divergence. It is extremism that wields the ax, on one side or the other, which sends a deleterious vapor to mislead people’s minds.
Last Thursday, an initiative by Joe Biden made little noise in Quebec in the face of the burning issues of news bulletins. The White House wants to fight the censorship that plagues school and public libraries in several conservative states where the far right bans titles. The US President creates a coordinator position (to be filled) attached to the Office of Civil Rights of the Ministry of Education. Goal of the exercise: to counter the growing threat to citizens’ rights posed by expanding savage literary cuts. Training in schools to explain the dangers of censorship and misinformation would be put in place. Very good !
In 2022, a record was shattered in twenty years of title bans in the big neighbor, 30% more than the previous year. The American Booksellers Association counted 1,269 withdrawal requests. These works deemed messy focused mainly on communities of color and LGBT. Not only.
Maus, Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel about the Holocaust, has been ostracized in a school in Tennessee. In Virginia and elsewhere, the works of the Nobel-winning African-American novelist Toni Morrison were withdrawn from several shelves. Add history textbooks declared seditious if they address the history of slavery, the struggles of blacks or those of women, books affecting gays or transgender people. Those whose content seems too shocking. Enough to stir up the stigmatization of students according to their ethnic origin, their sexuality. And what else?
In Florida, under the rule of Governor Ron DeSantis, a fiercely revisionist Republican candidate, libraries are becoming increasingly empty. But other local politicians are happily cutting corners.
They will not let their behavior be dictated to easily. Florida, Arkansas, Texas have passed new pro-censorship laws. Missouri, Utah and South Carolina wield the ax shamelessly. Let’s assume that every rogue state will fight tooth and nail against the White House intruder. The US federal state can rely on a civil rights law prohibiting discrimination based on gender, sex, race, religion, sexual orientation or ethnic origin. But the central government will face local jurisdictions.
Moreover, if the Republicans return to power in November 2024, what will these initiatives be worth? In a divided United States, each side flies virtue like a flag. The ultraconservatives claim to protect morality by preventing harmful readings, Joe Biden by opening the game. If Donald Trump stumbles on his legal setbacks, Ron DeSantis could become the favorite of the race in his party, knocking him down from Charybdis to Scylla.
The history of humanity teaches it to whoever wants to consult it: where the civil or religious censors light the auto-da-fé, obscurantism spreads like an oil stain. “Ignorance is strength”, proclaimed the slogan of the dictator of 1984 who rubbed his hands with it.