If you haven't read this, I would advise you do so. A great piece on a large amount of books that are actually banned, why they are banned, and a little about them. These books aren't banned the way the "banned books" section is at a Barnes and Noble, they're banned in the way that you can only find a PDF of them on some archive site and maybe a few physical copies for hundreds of dollars and ordering them will probably land you on a watchlist. I listened to most of a live reading of one of them and it actually had a significant impact on my thinking and opening my eyes to things I previously unconsciously chose not to notice. I'll drop that one later, I want to finish it first. Books range from knife fighting tactics to WWII revisionism to an autobiography of a US president (yes they basically banned a book written by a US president). Also, a romance novel written by Saddam Hussein.
https://www.anarchonomicon.com/p/the-anarchonomicon-real-banned-book
I posted this a while back:
https://stasher.news/uploads/519
After seeing your list, one correction to that rule of thumb: the heuristic only holds when a book is suppressed for its ideas, the kind of thinking that actually threatens the current arrangement of power. Hoppe belongs in that category. He was already on my reading list; your post just moved him to the top :)
If a book is banned mainly because of who the author was (e.g. uber-totalitarian figures who sincerely believed they were gods on earth and therefore entitled to rule and decide over others (Gaddafi and his kind), I personally treat it as any other politics: a waste of time and a distraction. Their writings are usually just the aftertaste of power and extreme centralization (centralization = bad. Always.), not an independent challenge to it.
I did read Lolita. Nabokov is an exceptionally talented writer and I remember enjoying the experience. Yet, given my pathological memory, I remember nothing from it: no arguments, no durable quotes. That told me it was pure entertainment: writing about a taboo topic and getting banned for it does not, by itself, make a book valuable (for me). I try not to spend scarce time on those either.
Thank you for the post. I had already heard good things about Hoppe: your recommendation was the thing that decided it :)
At this point you're gonna think I'm copying you lol. I don't think your characterization is accurate. Controversial political leaders are also often banned because they proclaim ideas that resonated with a lot of people and that's what created their movement in the first place. That doesn't make them right, but it does make those ideas worthy of exploration to at the very least be able to recognize them, challenge them, etc. The US president book (Hoover) I'm referring to was actually a revisionist objection to aspects of false history advertised as truth regarding FDR's presidency specifically his actions in WWII and how he botched it. WWII, The American Civil War, the Civil Rights Act and Jesus are the founding myths of our civilization. They're also all heavily filled with lies and bullshit and logical fallacies and even the most cursory examination of actually dissenting revisionist history undermines them completely. Basically progressivism and all of its core beliefs is a complete lie often derived from Christianity (although it had some non-Christian enlightenment influence) which is based on a figure that was actually mythical and not historical.
Honestly, I have no desire to read Lolita. Sounds like it would make my fucking skin crawl and make me want to start a fire.
I agree that something being banned doesn't inherently make it valuable. I'm generally inclined to say we shouldn't ban books and material like Lolita that way we can identify and "admonish" the people who consume such material enthusiastically (without using the state of course). Those people should be "admonished" until there aren't any left. Note I'm not saying anyone who read it, just the people that found the male's mate selection age particularly appealing.
It’s not "ideas" (plural). Throughout history it has mostly been ONE recurring idea: too many poor people relative to what the system can absorb -> violent redistribution of limited economic resources (aka "wealth redistribution").
The only real difference is the target:
- inside the society: socialist/populist movements and revolutions
- outside the group: nationalisms, revisionisms, other -isms, theocracies/cults, conquests
All of them are just forms of collectivism/centralization with a violent redistributionist social agenda.
I think your framing misses a couple key points:
There are societies who have relatively extreme resource scarcity that don't produce significant revolution/societal change.
People are motivated by factors other than resource scarcity (desire for cultural/racial/theological homogeneity/change, desire for a perceived better world for their children, principals of fairness, principals of justice, response to perceived humiliation or insult to honor). These often (nearly always actually even if the change is organic and driven less by resource competition factors since opportunists always exist) also have a resource competition aspect to them, but it's not just that component.
I think you're also undervaluing the real differences between groups. Even in an anarchist society, there would be maintenance of societal and cultural standards. There's no future where everybody accepts everybody as the same as them and holds hands and sings kumbaya. There will ALWAYS be conflict. There are real differences between peoples via theology, race, culture, genetics more broadly, ideology more broadly. I think there is an undercurrent where there are similarities like a least common denominator amongst all humans, but that doesn't mean the differences are small or insignificant. Many conflicts have been motivated by racial tensions and theological tensions that don't easily map to resource competition. I think libertarian/anarchists often just dismiss these things as "they don't matter" because of the overarching issue of the state (which I agree is a substantial issue and the most important one and I favor decentralization over centralization the overwhelming majority of the time unless the centralization is truly voluntary). Being libertarian/anarchist often allows for a "do whatever you want as long as it's voluntary", but I don't think this actually applies in any real society. Societies have standards that can and must be enforced. That doesn't have to mean a state, but it does mean conflict (even solely rhetorical or social conflict). Libertarianism/anarchism often by default accepts and internalizes the belief that "we are all the same" or "we are all equal". These things are not true and have never been true and the nature aspect of the nurture nature debate is significantly undervalued in modern society. My maximum capacity for achievement for cognitive and athletic ability was determined at birth via genetics. Many personality traits and behaviors are determined genetically. Peoples are not the same. We are not all equal. That does not mean I advocate using a state to sort out society, I believe the opposite. A natural elite exists within society, but it requires market forces to determine them and even then there remains a subjective component. I would argue the state has been the largest driving factor against human evolution because it creates negative artificial selections of humans that optimize for short term thinking, net negative opportunism, moral bankruptcy, and compliance to authority.
The history of society is not solely a story of the conquest of bread.
That all being said, I broadly agree with your point. I think it's necessary, but not sufficient in understanding the world. Also, I think you may have missed my point about the importance of understanding, recognizing, and being able to challenge the beliefs and ideologies of others. Being able to undercut positions as illogical and incoherent and to be able to effectively articulate against them is a significant boon for our side. I believe pro-anarchism/libertarianism is correct, but we have to argue effectively for our ideas and a large part of that is understanding what others believe. If we can't effectively advocate for ourselves then we can't effectively grow the movement or undercut the growth of other competing harmful movements. I would also argue that the constant fence sitting of libertarians/anarchists on cultural/social issue that are voluntary is a big part of what turns people away from the ideology. That's not the only problem with them, but it's a big one.
That's a good list of books. I'd have to scream it out and make a pick selection. Anything in particular you'd suggest?
I took some time and created a list, which I think will be good for indexing and also make it easier for people (like me) that want to see the full list in one go :)
Here are the books mentioned in the article, organised by section:
The Devil HimselfThe Devil Himself
Evil Ethnicities: Hatreds and HomelandsEvil Ethnicities: Hatreds and Homelands
Ravenous RacistsRavenous Racists
Sinister StatesmenSinister Statesmen
How-To Guides of HorrorHow-To Guides of Horror
Final Segment: Foul FuckingFinal Segment: Foul Fucking
The image is good too
https://stasher.news/uploads/513
My recommendations would be:
Hitler's War by David Irving
I haven't read it, but I've read and listened to people who use his work as one of their sources and it's pretty good.
The Turner Diaries by William Luther Pierce
Even if you're against the race stuff it's actually a pretty good book on mounting a decentralized revolution. I've read part of it.
Race War In High School by Harold Saltzman
(He is Jewish, but if you read what he writes it sounds pretty truthful and prescient and has been censored as such. If a jew says 2+2=4 that doesn't mean the answer is 5.)
A group about the disastrous integration of one of the first schools in the area that was propagandized and declared a success despite it's multitude of failures. It's like reading a book on the Summer of Love (BLM riots) as you realize that this conflict has been on repeat for at least 60 years. This was the book I'm talking about that opened my eyes a bit, still haven't finished.
Democracy the God that failed by Hans Herman Hoppe
I listened to a live reading of most of this. A great book on how democracy actually represents a step backwards for freedom and Hoppe's brand of anarchism is stylistically unique. Over time I've noticed that my brand is similar to his, just without Abhrahamism. I need to read more of his work.
Thanks for sharing your preferences; this is one of the few I'll add to my reading list. In the meantime I wanted to have a complete list of the books in the image (the list above I extracted from the article), so I did some more digging and categorized by theme. It was too long for a comment, so I posted the full list here.