History in Smoke: Burning books

"Where they burn books they will also, in the end, burn humans."
-Heinrich Heine

Some absolute tragedies, particularly the Library at Alexandria... I wasn't even aware of that Buddhist complex and the thought of it burning for 3 months is unbelievably tragic.

[edit on 10/5/2010 by serbsta]

S & F


When will Internet start smoking?


Masses must stay stupid and cheap.

It is hard for a people to stay informed when their information is purposefully destroyed every few generations. How could they impress us with "new" things if we knew they were copies of old? How can the keep us slaves if we know how create/build for ourselves the things that make life easier?

From Ezekiel:

The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.
Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us.
There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after.

Whether one believes in God or not, the Bible is filled with prophetic truths.

It is the way of mankind to destroy that which belongs to another culture or belief. It is the way of mankind to try to force all to be as they are, ignorant. To battle ignorance is to battle the very nature of man.

Keep up the good fight people of ATS, our "library" is under attack even as we type.

reply to post by SLAYER69
I agree totally Slayer, if we could only have them now! What might we learn about ourselves today. There is so much we have lost to time.

A good thread Kandinsky, but one that leaves me with a profound sense of sadness.

A star and Flag, and a second line

Hiya guys, thanks for the replies and for starring each other's posts too.

This is likely the last post on the thread so I'd like to add a few links and quotations that might interest people and a vid

We can never be sure that the opinion we are endeavoring to stifle is a false opinion; and if we were sure, stifling it would be an evil still. ~John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, 1859

The only valid censorship of ideas is the right of people not to listen. ~Tommy Smothers

The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error. ~John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, 1859

... from Quotations about Censorship

Wikipedia's List of Books Banned by Governments

BANNED: Books you could have been jailed for reading

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/d955592a7b46.jpg[/atsimg]

Nazis were people too...families, friends, dreams...

Another item you could add that is not a literal but figurative book burning of sorts. Politically motivated revision. Simply rewrite the books and alter history to a more politically friendly version. It seems to have replaced the actual burning of books. Once a generation is dead and gone, you simply rewrite and teach a history that backs up your agenda.

I'm sure this has been going on since ink first met paper. Knowing that, how much of the books that did survive can be believed? The propaganda would be allowed to survive while the real history was burned. The history that remains is likely mostly propaganda no matter how old.

I'd think the most valuable remaining would be first person accounts. Perhaps the only ones worth considering.

It 's very sad how much we have lost from our past.

Saint Patrick who we Irish famously celebrate for bringing Christianity to Ireland, is reported in medieval texts to have himself burnt over 180 Druid books in Ireland.

Besides burning ,data altering schools curriculum works wonderfully well !
www.spinninglobe.net...
Not to mention filling brains with GUNK TV and assorted triviality !
Or group think ( its members and students won't look, discover or study any contradicting material ) Like Authoritarian Darwinism . Psychiatrists
Really study human behaviors and thinking mechanisms . ( Drug dealers
Controlling propagandist is all they are )