It starts in grade school, typically. The teacher assigns a book that you think sounds boring, so you think to yourself that you just won’t read that one. Soon, you pass the test without having read the book, so you decide that it’s okay to skip the next book and the next book and the next. Before long, you’ve read maybe two books in the last year, but you feel that you aren’t missing out on anything. These are just fiction books, right? What do fiction books really have to offer? This is where I would like to break down something that I am very passionate about. I want to discuss the importance of reading, and why it is essential that we continue to educate ourselves daily.

When I was in grade school, I was quite the nerd. I still am. So getting me to read wasn’t hard. Getting my friends to read was a bit harder. One book that really sticks out to me that almost nobody in my grade actually bothered to read was Fahrenheit 451. Now, if you know this book, or even the movie, you will understand the point I am trying to make here. When I finished that book, I was shocked. Not because there was some intense plot twist or the characters did something unbelievable. I was shocked because that book that I had just read didn’t really seem so fiction, although it was. I thought that this book was more akin to our world than almost any other book I have read. Now, since then, I have found a few that I think speak slightly better to the downfall of our society, but that is besides the point. The point is that Fahrenheit 451 taught me something about our world. It taught me something that I wouldn’t have realized otherwise. What happened to the kids that skipped it? Probably the same thing that happens to the kids that are no longer allowed to read Fahrenheit 451 or 1984 or Brave New World in schools.

These books are being banned for too much and for being too heavy. Fahrenheit 451 is banned for themes of censorship; that seems a little hypocritical, don’t you think? 1984 is banned for being too political. Wait, but this is America. We are supposed to be a country that is founded on freedom, right? To Kill A Mockingbird is banned for having racial slurs and themes of sexual violence. Oh, but I have heard my teachers use racial slurs. I have seen teachers get arrested for sexual violence. Isn’t it important to learn about these things? The Diary of Anne Frank is banned for containing content that may not be suitable for young ages. Was it suitable for Anne to have to face what she did at her age?

I had the privilege to read these books in school. Most of us had the privilege, whether we choose to look at it that way or not. Kids now, they don’t have that privilege. From as young as they start school, they are handed a laptop and an inability to think. We are the ones that got to read these books. The generations after us won’t be so lucky. They won’t get the privilege of thinking. They won’t understand what it is like to learn. Why? Because the best way to control people is to take away their need to learn.

Brave New World differs from 1984 in the sense that it is founded on the idea of entertaining people to control them instead of controlling them with hate. Do we see the government controlling us with hate? Sometimes. What do we see more than that? The new phone has been released, new movies every week that do nothing but rot your brain, new erotica stories, new clothes, new shoes, new restaurants. With all of that, we have no time to think. We are constantly having new media shoved in our faces to combat the fact that we have the right to learn. We are meant to learn and grow as humans. We are meant to understand what is happening around us. But it’s hard to understand what you don’t care to know.

Just like you had the choice to skip out on a book in grade school, you have the choice now. Do you want to learn, or are you okay being controlled? Knowing is the first step to change, and knowing is the first step to freedom. If you were trapped in a cage but didn’t know it wasn’t your home, would it really feel like a prison? If you were having your rights torn out of your hands, but you didn’t understand your rights, would you really understand that you are losing your freedom?

We won’t wake up in some apocalyptic world that seems straight out of a science fiction movie, but there will be changes. And those changes will add up to something that is much worse than what any novel could begin to depict. That is, I believe, unless enough people choose to learn. If we choose to learn, we are choosing to not stand for what is happening in our country right now. They can take away our rights and they can shove social media and entertainment down our throats, but, truly, they can’t take away our ability to learn. We just have to choose to use that ability.

I will end with one thought. I said earlier that the best way to control someone is by taking away their need to learn. I didn’t say it’s by taking away their ability to learn because that isn’t realistic. This means that we have a choice. They can take away our need to learn, but you can still choose to want to learn. They can ban books from school, but those books will still sit on my bookshelf. They can say AI is okay to use in schools, but I can still choose to come up with my own thoughts. They can take away every need to learn, but I will still want to learn. Will you?