First, I'd like to mention that yes, I have read countless whiney 'blogs, including some of the "great ones" such as ShanMonster's "Rant and Rage" page, Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About, and numerous other sites that contain various bitchings, often with a humorous overtone.

I tried to resist as long as possible, not wanting to appear to "rip off" other people's ideas, but really, if you knew me, you'd know that "ranting" lies fairly close to the top of the list of things I do well.

Also, if you have not already, please read the disclaimer included on my Information page.

09/02/2002

Today, while checking out memepool, I stumbled across a few pages discussing the evils of Harry Potter, such as this, this, and this.

In summary, as much as this may surprise you, the Harry Potter books (you know, the books about a child WIZARD?) contain endless examples of occult imagery. To their credit, the above linked pages' correctly identify many such examples, though they describe just as many more in wildly inaccurate hysterics. So, various groups (almost exclusively Christian) see the ubiquitous availability of these stories as posing an enormous threat to the spiritual safety of "our" children.

First of all, I do not intend to make a point-by-point refutation of what such groups as those linked above claim. On many of the ideas those sites present, I agree with them (although even to me, a person fairly prone to mild paranoia in matters where the government involves itself, these folks strike me as the sort likely to come out of bunkers in Montana heavily armed and very drunk. But enough of the ad hominem).

You might ask, "Okay, so what does PLA have a problem with, if not the specific facts themselves? Just sounds like a few somewhat overzealous people spreading the word about what they perceive as a threat to their children. Can't argue with that, can we? They have a right to an opinion."

So, dear reader, I answer this fair question.

Hypocrisy. Nothing more, nothing less.

I have read the five Harry Potter books. They read well, very fantasy-oriented, definitely for a younger crowd but interesting enough to keep one's attention for a couple of hours. Overall, reasonably innocuous, though as I said, I do not intend to debate the prophets-of-doom on the evils of Harry Potter.

Instead, I would point out a very simple, obvious fact.

To read these books, I had to buy them. I hopped into my car, drove a few miles to Borders, picked them out (not hard, on a rack right near the front), paid for them, and drove home. I suppose I could have taken them out from a library, but I didn't. Most importantly, I had to ACTIVELY seek them out to obtain and read them.

The more astute among you will already see where I plan to go with this...

In my life, I have stayed in perhaps two dozen hotel/motel rooms. All but three of these came, completely unrequested, with a copy of the Gideons Bible tucked away into a drawer. Two of the three lacking Bibles had a small card saying that I could request that book at the front desk. Oddly, not a single hotel room I have every visited had a similar card (let alone the books themselves) for the Qu'ran, Newton's Principia, the 'Gita, or any of a number of other holy books.

To quote the first link in the above paragraph:
Our sole purpose is to win men, women, boys and girls to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ...

That Certainly sounds like a noble cause, at least to those already belonging to their faith - If not knowing Jesus gets folks sent to the lake of fire, "spreading the word" seems like the highest of callings. It does, however, nicely illustrate my point.

Now, I would ask you, my reader, to ponder these two situations from the point of view of a religiously neutral third party.

On the one hand, a children's book might spread some possibly dangerous ideas and make it more difficult to "bring lambs to the shepherd". To read this book, a child needs to actively obtain a copy of it. This almost certainly requires the involvement of the child's parents, and even if the child somehow acquires a copy covertly, the parents SHOULD notice any activity that takes perhaps a few days to complete.

On the other hand, while visiting a hotel room over the course of a vacation, I go to put my socks in a drawer, and what do I see? Yup. Nothing subtle, nothing of "questionable" linkage to a given philosophy. I see nothing less than THE book defining the core of the Christian religion, with convenient exerpts at the beginning to cover any particular "bad" thoughts I might have at that very moment.

So, back to the "hypocrisy" idea.

In the same world wherein I can find (and have little choice about the matter) a Christian Bible in any given hotel sock-drawer, quite a few groups (such as the ones linked to at the top of this rant) have done their damnedest (pun intended) to prevent anyone from reading such "dangerous" stories as the Harry Potter books.

Does anyone else see the problem here?