Fahrenheit 451, ouch that’s hot

I had a dream last night that was quite similar to the plot of Fahrenheit 451. For those that are unfamiliar with it, a future government bans all books and reading because they feel an educated populace is too hard to control. If you are caught with books or reading a book the fire department was called and they came and burned your house down and all your books.  Then you would be dragged off into the night never to be seen again.  It’s a classic novel by Ray Bradbury, which was turned into a rather groovy movie in the 60’s.

My dream however seemed to take place in the present and seemed to document the slow rise of anti-intellectualism that sweeps across the country. (I might have been watching too much about Wisconsin government.) Somewhere in my mind I seemed to put together this idea that reading and learning was against the governments interests. That just like the book, the less people know the easier they are to control.  I remember dreaming that I couldn’t wait to get to a computer and start writing and expressing my extreme disgust with this practice.

I woke up with that thought still pounding away in my head and I was quite motivated, until I realized that I was just dreaming and reading wasn’t illegal. It did get me thinking again about our own government and their handling of the whole collective bargaining thing in Wisconsin. It got me thinking about Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. He makes mention (and I’ll paraphrase) that this government is one “of the people, by the people and for the people”; any government institution that forgets who they work for and why is not deserving of our respect and should be heartily questioned. The people brought this government into existence, not the other way around. So we have the right to question and complain and demand reasonable answers.

So I have to ask the question and I don’t know if anyone has asked yet, is what they’re doing right and just for the people? Are the people’s best interests at the heart of this legislation? I haven’t heard anyone ask that. Or maybe I couldn’t hear it over the crackling of the flames speeding across the country, demolishing the words of reason and accountability.