DAN R. writes:

A California public library has thrown away more than a hundred-thousand books in the past two years.  Some were in a state of disrepair, but most were regarded as “outdated” and were disposed of in order to make way for newer books. While on principle I find the throwing away of books to be reprehensible, I can’t help but reflect on an irony: in homeschooling our children, the bulk of books we bought were older ones from library sales and thrift stores because the great majority of children’s books, beginning with those published in the mid-1970s, reflected the “progressive” values we most definitely did NOT want to impart to our children. From “Heather Has Two Mommies” and novels depicting “girlpower” (inevitably accompanied by the demeaning of traditional male roles), to the multicultural children’s books, too many manifested the ongoing cultural revolution. God forbid any of these books be supportive of a mother at home (a term which has always struck me as redundant) and traditional male and female roles. And to underscore the common level of crudity so often found in these newer books, one bought for us by a relative featured farting as its most memorable moment.

So often we hear conservatives dismiss attempts to raise issues of this kind, inevitably coming back to the refrain “it’s the economy, stupid,” but a revolution has occurred based upon countless small victories of the cultural left (which now includes many on the so-called right). I’m often reminded that the most significant of the Marxists was Antonio Gramsci, who basic idea was “capture the culture and the rest will follow.” Children’s books influence the future generation at a vulnerable time in their lives. Is it any wonder that the generation brought up on these books voted overwhelmingly for The One?

Perhaps the most frightening thing about the dumping of these books is the idea of “the revolution eating its own.”  The books thrown away already embodied our cultural revolution, yet by its own standards were “outdated” and discarded.  I suspect “Heather Has Two Mommies” is now regarded as tame.

— Comments —

Anita Kern writes:

This reminds me of the work of Nicholson Baker, who first wrote about the destruction of card catalogues (in the New Yorker, April 4, 1994, “Discards”), and then wrote a book – “Double Fold: Libraries and the assault on paper” – I recommend both.

He himself went on to save untold numbers of newspapers in his ‘American Newspaper Repository.’ “Double Fold” was preceded by another New Yorker article, July 24, 2000 –“Deadline: The Author’s Desperate Bid to Save America’s Past.”

Jill Farris writes:

Library sales can be dangerous places for bibliophiles who know what to look for!

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