Banning Books-Restrict Thinking

The banning of books has been a controversial issue since the days of Mark Twain and Huckleberry Finn. In George Orwell's book 1984 he writes about the restriction of literature and vocabulary as a way to control society. By creating Newspeak, Winston and his fellow citizens are restricted in the way they can describe, analyze and reason with information.

Among the most debated books are The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Brave New World, Lord of the Flies and Darwin's Origin of Species. All these books have racy plots or word-usage, however it can be stated that these are two elements that make these books so great in the first place. Banned books are controversial because they challenge moral and ethical dilemmas, and challenge them to an extrema that the majority of society might not always be comfortable with.

Personally I believe that banned books are ridiculous. If you don't like an ideal or you strongly disagree with the way the moral or ethical dilemmas are dealt with simply don't read the books. However, it is a fair statement to believe that some books could be harmful to the common good of the society. Such as books that strongly appeal to the satanic or cult-like parts of society. Banning books is in theory a good idea, but once the government begins to take the practice to an extreme, such as banning books because of a "potentially" harmful ideals, the theory becomes irrelevant and useless.