Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries

Found this list compiled by the Human Events Online website recently. They are a "National Conservative Weekly"Welcome to Our Blog About the Most Prominent Events of the 20th CenturyThese are the ten books:The Communist Manifesto
Mein Kampf
Quotations from Chairman Mao (Little Red Book)
The Kinsey Report
Democracy and Education
Das Kapital
The Feminine Mystique
The Course of Positive Philosophy
Beyond Good and Evil
The General Theory of Employment, Interest and MoneyNow I might have a tentative (tentative because I feel that books in themselves cannot be harmful, only the people who blindly follow them)agreement with a couple of these but the rest seem to be reasonable essays on feminism, economics, philosophy, education and sociology. The usual suspects (Nietzsche, Kinsey, Marx) are represented but, unhappily for this forum's purpose, Darwin only hits the top thirty shortlist.Other reasons for inclusion seem to be promoting Govt. spending, not believing in God, increasing thinking skills and opposition to imperialism. Pretty dangerous thoughts there!The reason for this proposed topic is twofold. First, is the list representative of mainly US conservative and Christian thinking? (in other words do you agree). And second, does anybody have alternatives for the list?PNT for the Coffee House I think.

Thread moved here from the Proposed New Topics forum.

The very idea that there are dangerous books is more frightening than the bombings in London, Madrid, the US, Kenya and Tanzania.

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion

Mein Kampf is, perhaps, the one book on this list that I know espouses an ideology that I find repugnant. Yet I can't say that I find the book dangerous.

I'm not sure many people actually read Mein KampfMick

What I find odd is the inclusion of the last book, which is one of Keyne's work. Some conservatives may not like Keynesian economic policies, but Keynes' ideas are pretty standard mainstream ideas. To list his book as one of the ten most dangerous really indicates just how extreme the compiler of this list really is.

Oh my god! John Stuart Mill's On Liberty made "Honorable Mention". At least we now know these people aren't the libertarian wing of conservatism.

People should be allowed to read the Satanist Bible, if they wish. (Or perhaps the egyptian book of the dead) I personally disagree with some of the liberal books that elementary schoolkids are allowed to read, like A Way Of Love, A Way Of Life: A Young Person's Introduction To What It Means To Be Gay . Not because i am anti gay so much as because I believe that the state has no right to indoctorinate children on what constitutes "normal' behavior. Many young people are unsure of their feelings, and to propagate such feelings as simply normal and alternative is not the job of the state. The parents and family have this right first.

anti-gay? Sure you are. What else can be used to describe someone who puts normal in qualifications such as ''s.I'm not not anti-black but I don't feel it's upto the state to say they are 'equal' to us white people.

1. Bible (extremely dangerous book)
2. Koran (extremely dangerous book)
3. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (full of dangerous ideas)
4. Complete Shakespeare (very heavy with pointy edges)

All that I am saying is that it is not up to the state to "inform" my kids that they may be gay and that it is not a worry. The state does not know my child and I do.Of course, if there was trouble at home and my teen was being rejected or judged by me, my child would have the right to go to a state agengy for help. The difference is that a younger (9-12) year old who is being exposed to a big wide world does NOT need to be taught acceptable morality by a relative bunch of unknowns( the state) when this is the job of family.

What I like with the list is the links to Amazon.com so you can buy the books. Presumably to organise your own bring-and-burn party.The Ralph Nader book in the shortlist is puzzling. General Motors shareholders perhaps?

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Apophenia:seeing patterns or connections in random or meaningless data.
Pareidolia:vague or random stimulus being perceived (mistakenly) as recognisable.Ramsey Theoryatterns may exist.Whoops!

I like their comment on Das Kapital: They shouldn't be so hard on poor Karl. I'm living at the beginning of the 21st century, and I can't make this prediction either. But we still have 95 years to go -- maybe it will come to pass.

Actually, Karl did forsee just that and considered such a society as a necessary precursor for a Communist Society.

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion

Children need to be taught that society sees gays as normal and equal. If you want to teach your children otherwise, nobody can stop you, just as nobody can stop you from teaching your children to wear white hoods and lynch blacks.Education is an organ of society as a whole, not just the family. The interests of society as a whole are threatened by book-banning. Your wanting to ban books about gays is no different from banning books containing four-letter words, or banning books containing "unapproved" political ideas.

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People who think they have all the answers usually don't understand the questions.