I was just forwarded this article about an undergraduate student at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth. Apparently, agents from the US Department of Homeland Security paid him a visit, after he had checked out a copy of Mao's "Little Red Book" through the library's inter-library loan service. Ironically, the student had requested the book so that he could write a paper about the dangers of totalitarianism.
Though I've been aware of US librarians' efforts to safeguard patrons' borrowing information, I hadn't caught wind of the fact that some, clearly, aren't doing so. I'm chilled further by the fact that this occurred through a university library's borrowing program. I happen to work at a university, and I suspect many of you reading D&R do, too.
I read the aforementioned article with a sense that things have changed here in the US--particularly since the coming online of the USA Patriot Act (a painfully laughable name for such a pernicious piece of legislation). It's clear that there's a growing climate of fear here among intellectuals, and no doubt others, too. Yet, I am forced to remind myself how intellectuals have been persecuted for decades, even centuries, around the world for just these kinds of activities, often by more than just a "visit" by local security agents. I also am compelled to reflect on the fact that I came of age at a relatively safe, and thus privileged, time in the US academy, when nobody seemed to care if you checked out a copy of Mao's "Little Red Book," Marx and Engels' "Communist Manifesto," or some other politically charged ("unpatriotic") piece of writing.
I suppose, ultimately, the article I've linked to is very clarifying. It underscores the stakes of doing meaningful, engaged intellectual work at a time when it's unpopular (from the government's standpoint) to dissent. Visits by homeland security for checking out Mao's "Little Red Book?" Those clearly must stop--and the climate of fear and intimidation that goes along with them.
P.S. If you decide to comment, watch what you say. "They" may be reading, too. . . .
3 comments:
....no comments yet....intriguing.......
That is shocking. If I'm not mistaken, were you to be visted by these agents and didn't cooperate, you could face jail time? I hope they know what they're doing this time in Congress as the Patriot Act faces renewals, renewals our Commander-in-Chief wants to see made PERMANENT. Something as insidious passed through the House and the Senate right after 9/11 for several reasons:
a.) They probably didn't read it.
b.) The USA Patriot Act? "America - fuck yeah!" And in post 9/11 society, especially right after those attacks, if you weren't a patriot, you were a terrorist.
Remember what W said all those years ago: "You are either with us...or you are against us."
And remember what Obi-Wan said in 'Revenge Of the Sith' : "Only a Sith deals in absolutes."
I enjoy reading such "subversion."
Hi Alex,
Thanks for the note. Indeed this is for real...and it only seems to be getting worse for teachers and students alike. I hope you and others continue speaking up about this.
The connection you draw to Revenge of the Sith is, by the way, one I cannot get out of my head. There was so much talk around the film's release about its portrayal of empire building and what's going on in our world right now. I wish that conversation hadn't died down.
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