Urban Librarians Unite gets support from all kinds of places and some of our friends have forwarded us this. It appears to be a manifesto of sorts, seemingly of an illuminati-like anti-book element. We thought it was pretty heady stuff really and wanted to draw attention to it as we come up on this year’s Banned Book Week September 30th – October 6th.
A Call to the Book Police
Throughout history books have housed dangerous and seditious ideas. They are a highly efficient, highly portable, highly durable means of spreading ideas regardless of whether or not those ideas have passed official censors. Books are cheap and a single one can influence many separate individuals in enduring ways. They are highly efficient vectors of dissent and dangerous thought.
The dangerous nature of books was first realized at the primo genesis of books and has been recognized by authorities (both formal and informal) for millennia. The Book Police have always been watching. Before there was movable type there were interests on hand to ensure the purity of the press.
Rarely seen, never formally organized the Book Police have always worked to keep dangerous and seditious information out of the hands of impressionable and unprepared individuals. The Book Police have kept cultures and societies pure through the exclusion of dangerous books from libraries and public spaces.
Like we said, it is heady stuff. They have a Twitter handle no less:
@book_police
They say they are watching, maybe we should watch back.