Books are often banned because they challenge some aspect of their reality that the dominant society accepts as unquestionable. They highlight a reality the authors believe is unjust and should be changed. Political censorship is often not about freedom of speech, but more about the 5th freedom: the freedom to petition the government for grievance. The freedom to disagree with the government. It is the freedom to reject the Tyranny of the Majority that Mill talks about.
Opposing political powers come at a high price.
Socrates was executed for his political views, as detailed in Plato’s The Republic.
Marx’s Communist Manifesto and Coats’s Between the World and Me were both restricted, challenged, and banned because of the political views they espouse.
What views were they expressing?
Why did they receive such reactions?
Who banned them and for what reasons?
At the same time, all three books were immensely influential. Can there be positive outcomes to censorship?
First: INTRODUCE EACH TEXT: (1) Plato (2) Marx (3) Coats and explain what is the gist of the writer’s argument? Choose a quote or two from each text that you think expresses the writer’s main idea.
Second: Provide a summary of the main points ONLY for Plato’s The Republic. The summary should be at least five sentences.
Third: Think back to the ideas about CENSORSHIP (NOTE: Sample Writing Provided) you learned about in Stage 1 (1st Essay) as an abuse of the power the dominant culture has over an individual.
How are these ideas reflected in the banning of this text or writer?
Did the text you are writing about deserve to be censored or banned?
Why or why not?
PLATO
PLATO: THE REPUBLIC BOOK VI
(USE THIS SOURCE AS PRIMARY SOURCE)
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xiLrnVJf_pBSw2jhuDo_NRBlbgK1wucnqVXVXacJzls/edit?usp=sharing
SOCRATES
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyIKayNXTPY
“PLATO’S PHILOSOPHER KINGS” FROM THE BBC
A short video Narrated by Aidan Turner. Scripted by Nigel Warburton.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02xbsyc
PLATO: THE REPUBLIC
Summary of the Books in The Republic
Read the intro to the book and the summary of Book VI
MARX
Karl Marx Manifesto of the Communist Party
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/index.htm
II: Proletarians and Communists
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/ch02.htm
IV: Position of the Communists in Relation to the Various Existing Opposition Parties
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/ch04.htm
“The Manifesto of the Communist Party-Summary and Explanation” by Walter Schmidt
https://www.ohio.edu/chastain/ac/commat.htm
“Censorship Files: The Communist Manifesto” By Aditi Kumar, Vishrut Nanda, Christopher Newman
“Karl Marx on Alienation” from the BBC
A short video Narrated by Gillian Anderson. Scripted by Nigel Warburton
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02h7dlv
“1848 February 21 Karl Marx publishes Communist Manifesto”
From History.com
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/marx-publishes-manifesto
COATS
Ta-Nehisi Coats, Between the World and Me
Read Part I – pages 5-9
Between-the-World-and-Me-by-Ta-Nehisi-Coates.pdf (2.414 MB)
“Ta-Nehisi Coates on banning books: “That’s no longer education, that’s indoctrination”” By KYLIE CHEUNG SEPTEMBER 27, 2021
This article includes an interview with Coats about the political motivation behind the banning of his book
https://www.salon.com/2021/09/27/ta-nehisi-coates-on-banning-books-thats-no-longer-education-thats-indoctrination/
“Making freshmen read ‘Between the World and Me’ is a mistake” By Robert Cherry
This is representative of the kinds of arguments made in defense of banning Coats’s book
https://nypost.com/2016/08/22/making-freshmen-read-between-the-world-and-me-is-a-mistake/
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