Banning words is worse than burning books. Introduction and viewpoint.

I don't know if i'm allowed to raise a topic for discussion as my introduction, but there's
been something on my mind I would like to discuss and hear differing opinions on.
In a world where books are burned, or banned or censored, it obviously restricts the conversation
and sidelines if not eradicates the targetted viewpoints and the people that espouse that message.

I can remember reading somewhere the most smuggled book in history was the bible in the Soviet Union.
Books can be rewritten, printed, and smuggled.
Banning words stops those books from ever being written, and the people that wrote them from ever
forming their ideas as coherently or said ideas ever being challenged.

On the other hand, there is a part of me that supports the regulation of certain speech in certain circumstances.
I feel particularly uncomfortable when there are rallies in my country and the songs that are sung call for the
killing of my culture and race, which is then used by the ruling party to hide their corruption and mismanagement and whip up support in struggling communities. A 'blame it on them' mentality. Do I have any right to want those
songs to stop being sung or articles that call for the forced expulsion/killing of another person or people
to be banned or at least limited to household gatherings? Is it justifiable to want my government to intercede
or would it violate anyone's freedom of speech in an unjustified manner? I would like to hear what you think.

***MOD EDIT***
Not an Introduction Thread
*Closing Thread*

The Introduction Forum is for introductions To tell something about you; not to start a thread about a topic.“Intro threads” that are really “topic threads” will be removed.
Welcome to ATS, it’s time to introduce yourself.

This area is solely for introducing yourself (as you can see by browsing through other Introduction threads by new members). We apologize for this inconvenience, but its a necessity for a website as large as ours. I've had to remove your entire post as it goes against our policies.

Strict code's like this are in place to help keep the machine 'running smoothly'. One of these policies is that members need to post their thoughts in the appropriate areas. I'm sure you'll understand the necessity for us having rules like this. It helps keep all the great threads and topics in their perspective areas of interest and not all lumped together, making it difficult to find when wanting to make additional comments.

You have posted what could be a very interesting topic in the "Introductions thread". With that said, I'm going to have to close this thread as it does not comply with the above stated rules. After you have managed to get 20 posts under your belt, start your own thread in one of the appropriate areas.

Thread closed, you can contact me by a private message for more information if needed after you have read the links provided above and in the final post below. Or you can also contact staff by alerting them here Complaints and Suggestions

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The following is about words, definitions, and books...

written by Hobbes

Seeing then that truth consisteth in the right ordering of names in our affirmations, a man that seeketh precise truth had need to remember what every name he uses stands for, and to place it accordingly, or else he will find himself entangled in words, as a bird in lime twigs, the more he struggles the more belimed. And therefore in geometry, which is the only science that it hath pleased God hitherto to bestow on mankind, men begin at settling the significations of their words; which settling of significations they call definitions, and place them in the beginning of their reckoning.

By this it appears how necessary it is for any man that aspires to true knowledge, to examine the definitions of former authors; and either to correct them, where they are negligently set down, or to make them himself. For the errors of definitions multiply themselves according as the reckoning proceeds, and lead men into absurdities, which at last they see, but cannot avoid, without reckoning anew from the beginning, in which lies the foundation of their errors. From whence it happens, that they which trust to books do as they that cast up many little sums into a greater, without considering whether those little sums were rightly cast up or not; and at last finding the error visible, and not mistrusting their first grounds, know not which way to clear themselves, but spend time in fluttering over their books; as birds that entering by the chimney, and finding themselves enclosed in a chamber, flutter at the false light of a glass window, for want of wit to consider which way they came in. So that in the right definition of names lies the first use of speech; which is the acquisition of science: and in wrong, or no definitions, lies the first abuse; from which proceed all false and senseless tenets; which make those men that take their instruction from the authority of books, and not from their own meditation, to be as much below the condition of ignorant men, as men endued with true science are above it. For between true science and erroneous doctrines, ignorance is in the middle. Natural sense and imagination are not subject to absurdity.

oll.libertyfund.org...

I read this volume for the first time not too long ago... it's long, and monotonous... but there is some gold in there.

In my opinion, it's not necessarily the words... but their meaning in which should not be lost. We can always lose a word, and then create a new one to take its place. But when you start changing the definitions, reading books from various authors from various time periods loses the information being proved, the comprehension and understanding of the author... ultimately dissolving the true meaning behind reading the book in the first place. Literature is all about the author... it's art, it's creation... to destroy the creator is to have never known what has been created.