Things I Learned While In Jail: The Significance of Literacy - Banned Books

One of the things that I found most interesting about my time in jail was the list of banned books. The concept was nothing new to me as I already understood that governments, schools, and libraries throughout history have banned books for various reasons. Some for being too critical of a particular ruler or regime, others for being too graphic or eye opening, but most notably for telling a version of history or a truth, that the current ruler/regime does not agree with and/or want the public to know.

I wouldn't call myself a Christian, but I have studied the bible simply because I value the wealth of knowledge that can be derived about humanity from reading one of the most controversial books of all time. The bible is unarguably the most banned book in history, even to this very day in 2018 the Bible is still the most banned book in the world. The Bible has been flat out banned in most of the Islamic nations, as well as North Korea. While many other countries limit or as in China's case flat out control who is allowed to buy them. Ironically the Quaran does not seem to be banned in a single country at the time of writing, though I have heard that France my soon be leading the charge against the Quaran, with other European countries following suit.

Obviously neither the Bible nor the Quaran is going to make the cut in an American jail because they are legally protected religious works, but instead the list consisted of timeless classics and self improvement books. Books like, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn which was banned for "racism" might make sense if the book was written in 2012 about the 90's or later but thats not the case. It's a book that Mark Twain began writing in 1876 about an earlier time in history where things that we consider racist today were just an everyday part of life. I understand why some might be offended by reading some of the things in the book, but that doesn't change the overall content of the book. It is books like this that help future generations understand what it was like during prior time periods.

With that said I believe that its quite obvious that the real reason for this book being banned is because the American government wishes to erase their own transgressions from history. This book specifically being targeted because it is seen as one of the greatest books ever written comparable to Homer's Odyssey. Until recently parts of this book were read and dissected for meaning by every child going to public school in America, yet now the same content that caused it to be so widely studied is now reason worthy of banning. I know that I may be a bit crazy, but to me this all seems entirely nuts.

The next book that really irked me to see on the list was Sun Tsu's Art of War. A book older than the New Testament of the Bible, one that has been studied and is still studied by every student of history, war and politics ever since its inception in 5th century B.C. It was actually this title that had me, the that guy that everyone noted as a quiet well spoken intellectual, walking around the block screaming and cursing up a storm about how ridiculous the list of banned books was. It was the accidental eye catch of this particular title that caused me to take a deeper look into the rest of the list. Now while I do not agree with the censorship, I can somewhat understand why they would not want prison inmates to understand what the art of war is about. Should some type of prisoner uprising break out this book illustrates key principles of war that are still taught today.

On a deeper level though this book shines light on the fact that war is more than just physical battles, and that the front lines are actually within the minds of the everyday citizen. The winners of every great war not only understand this truth, but use it to their advantage at every level of their campaigns. This is our current world powers are fighting so vehemently for censorship over our social media platforms. They realize that they have lost control over us through old platforms such as televisiaon and radio and now are scrambling to gain the same degree of control with what we use today.

Behold The Pale Horse written by Milton William Cooper, the man who is known for speaking about the world trade center attack two weeks prior on his radio show. It is also worth noting that in certain circles he was once known as the most dangerous(powerful) radio host in the country.

I hadn't actually heard of Cooper, nor had I any clue what the book was even about until discussing the banned book list later on with my bunkmate. To be perfectly honest I normally would have never been interested in reading this book, as its pretty wild even for myself, but the guy was definitely on to something because not only is it a commonly banned book, the La-Le-Lu-Le-Lo had him killed because of it. Yes you read that correctly, the La-Le-Lu-Le-Lo had him killed because of it. Sounds crazy but in 1998 he was wanted for tax evasion which is a serious crime but not one that typically ends up with the spokesman for the US Marshalls announcing that someone "will NOT be taken in alive". I find this ironic because your average person would have looked at the book and thought that the author must have been on drugs to come up with such a wild story... if they hadn't so blatantly killed him for writing it.

There were a number of other books that I could write about, that at the time I was appalled to see on the list, but for whatever reason I cant seem to remember exactly what they were. There was one author though who should feel rather accomplished for making the list 3 separate times for 3 different books on the topic of strategy, power and seduction. The 33 Strategies of War, The Art of Seduction, and my personal favorite The 48 Laws of Power. While I haven't read the first two books I'm currently reading The 48 Laws of Power and it has easily replaced East of Eden as my favorite book. The 48 Laws of Power is basically a case study of various historical events involving well known powerful people such as Al Pacino, Queen Elizabeth I of England, or Napoleon, and what the author describes as the 48 laws of power. If you haven't read this book, DON'T its complete crap LOL, its totally not easily one of the best books ever written about how to go about playing the real life game of thrones.

Overall the I learned quite a bit in jail. While its not someting that I ever would have chosen to do I am actually glad for the life experience. Hopefully I'll never have to go back again, but should that happen I know now what books to try to have read. haha