Should Mein Kampf and other "evil manifestos" be banished?

No books should be banned – if you don’t want to read them then Don’t. And yes.,, Freedom of speech means what you don’t want to hear too!

No. There is as much to be learned from horrible examples as there is in wonderful examples.

No. I am not a big fan of fascism.

Why hide what Hitler or any person like him thinks? I want to be able to look my enemies in the face.

No, absolutely not. Knowledge is power and we can’t deny people any knowledge of who Hitler was or how he did what he did.

That’d be using the same logic within those books.

Nope. Only the authors. Kidding.

No, books should not be banished and they certainly shouldn’t be burned either. The abomination that wrote “Mein Kampf”, and all of his minions, should have been burnt instead of all the books they destroyed in this manner.

No, they’re an excellent learning tool. Just like if you asked if I thought we should demolish Auschwitz, because of all the the horrors that it represents, I would say ‘no’. People should know what happens in the world. Just because something is ugly doesn’t mean you should cover it up, it means you should look it in the face, so that you can better confront other uglinesses that hide in prettier packaging, or seem “different”. Like how GLBT rights and civil rights and human rights are “different”.

I don’t think banning them will do any go, especially in this day and age. And banning something like Mein Kampf will only make it more desirable to certain sectors. that said, i believe it is banned in Germany, as are any Nazi memorabilia.

whatsmore, i think every child so be required to visit a/the holocaust museum, and see what happened.

i haven’t been to the one in DC, but i’ve visited Auschwitz, and i’ll never forget it.

@eponymoushipster. I visited Dachau many years ago and it was a very sobering and unforgettable experience. I know exactly how you feel.

They say that those who don’t know history are bound to repeat it, and doing something like banning these books, as horrible as the ideas in them are, would be akin to forcing people to forget history. As long as people are aware of what those ideas caused, I have no problem with it.

Free speech carries with it some freedom to listen.

I don’t think any book should be banned, though perhaps certain books should have different ratings (thinking mainly of adult books here) and of course you should be aware of what it is. I would not like to see “mein Kampf” in the local newsagent’s, but of course it should be available for study at the library, as it is an important document that has influenced the lives (and deaths) of millions of people in the 20th c.

There is no book that I can imagine, no matter how evil, that should ever be burnt (except symbolically of course).

Abstinence only for the brain. I will pass. It won’t work unless the goal is to make people stupid. Or make stupid babies.

Absolutely not. Thank god for the ACLU.

Banning would mean that there would have to be a group of powerful “banners”. Censorship and the manipulation of information worries me. Now, should every library be required to have a copy? No, that would another type of manipulation.

Two points:

1. if Mein Kampf (for instance) is not banned, then people can read it and respond to it intelligently. This particularly includes discussions of why it’s a a dangerous book and what we learned from the last time it hit the bestseller lists. It does more good as an open and available example of what not to do than any attempt at banning it could accomplish.

2. if there’s a group powerful enough to ban Mein Kampf, that group is also powerful enough to ban any other book. Do I want a group that can decide for me what I can and cannot read?

**Cough * 1984 * Cough Cough**

banning something is violence and violence always rebounds upon its self no matter how well intentioned. best to let it run its course instead of giving it validity and a enemy. Also there are good things to be learned from anything.

No they shouldn’t. The best way to learn from the past and not repeat the past is to not forget the past.