Our Right to Read is Under Attack
It’s time we make it clear; our Right to Read is non-negotiable
Our right to read is under attack.
If you are reading this, you are one of the many concerned about the assault on reading. Across the United States, libraries and librarians are facing an inquisition that we have not seen since the Red Scare. School systems are besieged by those who seek dominion over what and how America reads, as well as who they learn from.
Nobody will save our books but those who love to read. The recent purchase of digital library-service provider Overdrive by KRR makes this only more urgent; KRR is the venture capital firm that preyed upon Toys R’ Us, resulting in the death of a beloved toy outlet and a payout of $2 million to former Toys R’ Us employees. It’s clear that certain economic and political powers are convening to crush libraries and extract all the wealth they can.
We must save our books; to paraphrase a famous quote, those who seek to ban books will soon start banning people.
This is one article in a series of articles on reading and literacy. Pay attention to them! These articles will not be paywalled and will remain free forever. In return, all I ask is that you spread and share them with those who are frustrated with reading; who believe that they don’t have the patience, the brains, or the attention-span to truly get through a book.
You do.
Whether by paper, smartphone, audiobook, or braille, reading is part of your inheritance as a human being.
All you need to do is reclaim it.
Why the Alarm About Reading?
Stories are one of the most effective methods of information transfer. Most other animals can only translate information genetically, or passed down through their offspring. Humans are unique in that we can pass down information en masse. Oral storytelling allowed information to spread to dozens or hundreds. The printing press spread knowledge to hundreds of thousands, and the internet now passes information to billions of people, every day, without stopping.
It is an ability of immense power, and therefore, dangerous.
What is Stopping you from Reading?
Information-control is one of the keys to modern power. As such, it makes sense for power-seekers, especially those who seek authoritarian power over others, to control the flow of information.
Information can be controlled, broadly, in one of two ways. The first and most obvious way is to hide the information. This tried-and-true method locks up useful information behind any number of methods to ensure only those aligned with power-seekers have access to it.
The second and more modern way is to drown the information out with noise. In this case, any potential releases of sensitive information will have no open and prepared minds to receive it. We will call this jamming, since a similar term is already in use for electronic and radio signals.
Originally, it was much easier to hide reading material through censorship. We are increasingly becoming so jammed with overstimulating information, especially through social media apps, that many people cannot focus on a book long enough to take in any information. If you feel that you don’t have as much attention as you used to, you’re not alone.
While hiding information is usually done on purpose, jamming is not. Jamming is a result of an overabundance of signals, with far too much information competing for increasingly scarce mental bandwidth. Information broadcasters must then rely on increasingly subversive and what I would call “dirty” tricks to give their information higher priority.
Books, especially paper books, are at a disadvantage here. A complete book cannot dance for you in a maid outfit, or play with crunchy slime, or open satisfying toy eggs as you read. While these may sound silly, all of these are methods that other information services use to stimulate the senses.
These methods are used by companies whose sole purpose is to drive engagement on their platforms. The quality of the content or the harm it causes, does not matter. If regulators were not concerned, these companies would likely not regulate their content at all, save for choosing the most emotionally stimulating content possible.
The result is a people who can no longer vouch for their own interests and those of their neighbors. Their minds have become so poisoned with emotions, so overstimulated by content, that they become subsumed in the theatre, unable to separate themselves from the drama — and in turn act according to the power-seeker’s needs. Whether that need is to support a war, spend money, or take some other more dreadful action. Such is the inherent danger of government by theatrocacy, or rule by spectacle. Vladimir Putin’s Russia in the years before the Ukrainian War can be seen as one such example.
To govern by spectacle is now one of the most cost effective means of government. Screens and smartphone technology are ubiquitous, and it is becoming far cheaper to distract people with ridiculous spectacle than to govern with prudence, or even repress with force.
But a people who read books, especially paper books, are far harder to dazzle with spectacle. Paper books do not advertise or track your reading habits. They do not accrue data on your engagement for invasive and hidden algorithms.
This is not to say that there is no place for digital reading devices or audiobooks.
Given the realities, there are many, many reasons why reading is one of the healthiest activities for your brain, and why power-seekers are using an arsenal of psychological tricks to keep you engaged on devices and apps instead. We are only just discovering the consequences of these techniques, some of which will have psychological and cultural ramifications for generations to come.
We cannot, and must not, allow ourselves to be manipulated without resistance. Reading is a key to that resistance. More importantly, reading is our birthright as human beings.
It is time that we take that back.
A Final Word
If you’ve made it here, thank you for your interest and attention. If you found this article important or entertaining, please consider subscribing and sharing. If you are a Medium Member, please consider reading my Member’s Only articles. Your attention is valuable, and I deeply appreciate your support.
