Forbidden Knowledge

Often, ideas are viewed as dangerous. Examples include believing in something, such as communism in the time of McCarthyism in the United States, not being Catholic during the Spanish Inquisition, holding anti-slavery views in the south before the Civil War. These ideas or beliefs were met with violent oppression by the power systems these ideas “threatened.” Are ideas dangerous? Are belief systems dangerous? I think it’s truly safe to say they sure can be, but in many of these instances, the ideologies were far more dangerous to hold than they were actively damaging the cultures they existed in.
I don’t fear those who disagree with me, I can be disturbed by them, but I do not fear them.
The book Gender Queer appears at the ALA (American Library Associations) top most challenged books to be banned in public libraries and school libraries within the United States. There is clearly a belief that there’s something inherently wrong with learning about gender identity at a young age, but what is the root of this fear? Is it that the very knowledge held within the book is so toxic that it will infect the minds of our children and make them question their identity?
So common do parents in the western world try and shield their children from “questionable content.” What is the fear in understanding someone else’s worldview? When you shut those out, and assume that the knowledge contained within is somehow sinister and eldritch in nature such that it will drive someone mad, you not only discount the intelligence of the person reading the material, but also contribute to censorship.
Now when I discuss these as censorship, I want to distinguish them from something that people claim is free speech. When we choose to harm others with our speech, where it doesn’t go past the legal limitation of free speech, but instead enters a grey area of “If you say this you are an asshole,” this zone is the social ostracization zone. Words, phrases and, thoughts that we can “say,” but if said may have people campaign to have you fired, they may remove you from their circle of friends, or you may end up being shamed on twitter. This is still freedom of speech. Just because you have the freedom to say what you want, does not mean that there will not be reactions, appropriate or otherwise to what you have said.
While I don’t ascribe to the “many hands” delivery of justice today, they are utterly intertwined thanks to social media. I doubt I have any say in any individual’s punishment when it comes to any action they take that doesn’t directly involve me, and I doubt myself to have the knowledge to dole out justice. Nowadays, however, we have a mob of individuals at the ready, in many ways, to seek retribution for actions that have no bearing on them. Ultimately we want to see individuals brought to justice, we have a nearly sick satisfaction watching it. One only needs to look at “Instant Karma “compilations to understand that desire of ours. It does, however, boil itself down to being very base and in my view, unhealthy for us.
However, these reactions are themselves fundamentally protected by our free speech laws. I wouldn’t like the alternative as described by Oleg Orlov.

It’s not just public criticism that’s banned, but any independent thought. Even actions seemingly unrelated to politics or criticism of the authorities can be punished. There is no field of art where free artistic expression is possible, there is no academic freedom in the humanities, there is no more private life.

—Oleg Orlov, former co-chair of Human Rights Defense Center Memorial, closing statement at his trial, February 26, 2024,
this quote came from a report regarding to the deteriorating state of freedom of expression within the Russian nation. This is true censorship.
Many now believe that our freedom of expression is being curtailed. Sometimes it is because the words they said had them banned from their favorite game, sometimes it is because they are sued for saying things that are patently untrue. Ultimately these are people expressing ideas that are deemed controversial or sometimes hateful. While a part of freedom of expression, they aren’t without after effects.
I think it is incredibly easy to declare that all speech has consequences, and that thoughts have none. All speech is the way we make our impact on the outside world felt initially and if you believe that you are free from any ramifications because of that, you are truly deluded. This isn’t an attempt to make you feel uncomfortable, just pointing out a reality I think many of us often forget that words spoken, cannot be taken back. Even worse, we now have devices that truly allow us to share our thoughts. You need not speak to write a tweet and yet, if you allow even one individual to see that message and worse off take a photo of it, you are etching those words into the foreversphere. Not that we as small individuals have to worry about it now, but that isn’t to deny your digital footprint either.
We’ve strayed a bit from our topic, but I’ll relate it this way, sometimes, what you think “can’t be said,” can most definitely be said. It does not exist truly as forbidden knowledge. Historically, what I would consider forbidden knowledge, is sharing ideas that the government, monarchy, or culture as a whole deem so bad that you shouldn’t interact with it at all. Can you sit and ask yourself, is there anything I don’t want to know?
In Olga Tokarczuk’s book Flights, she describes a man who finds the Bodhi tree, the tree Buddha sat under and achieved enlightenment. He aims to sit under it, just as Buddha had before him and achieve the same enlightenment. As he went to do this, he realized just how painful and sad it would be to understand all the horrors of the world and ended up leaving.
What I love about that passage is that the man already understands how truly horrible the world can be in its darkest moments. He understands this and yet refuses to face what that reality is. He shields himself from knowledge that appears almost Lovecraftian to him. So horrible he doesn’t want to attempt to comprehend it.
Is there anything you are so afraid of you aren’t willing to understand it? I used to feel this way about a myriad of topics.
When I was younger, I fell into a phase of near extreme right-wing views. So much so that my Facebook feed eventually recommended a page ran by actual white nationalist fascists. I saw two tragic things there, the first being the manifesto written by the Christ church mass shooter, and secondly the contents of the page itself.
Talking first on the manifesto, it became incredibly important for me to read this. While I knew I believed this person to be wrong, there was something morbidly curious in my brain pushing me to figure out who this person was. So I read the document, fearing being put on some list for downloading it I read hastily and inevitably deleted it soon after. What I felt was strange, understanding more so that this was just a person who wanted to change the world, and felt so strongly that they’d hurt innocent people to do so. Some of their beliefs were noble, but ultimately they are undone by the heinous actions they decided to commit. I remember leaving my house and walking around the city for a while. I called a friend to tell them how I felt about the document.
Later I went through the content of the Facebook page that had shared it. It was run by someone who was very honest about who they were. They were obviously someone I fundamentally disagreed with on a significant amount, but at least they didn’t lie about who they were. It was in these moments when I realized that this information wasn’t insidious, it was wrong, and it was admittedly a very reprehensible way to think, but it wasn’t the knowledge held within that was the problem.
This will be a cliche, but truly, the problem was us. When I went down the alt-right path I did, it was done vindictively and to prove others wrong. I viewed the world as owing me something and I did truly feel, with no true reasoning behind this, that the world was stacked against me.
The knowledge was never an issue, I was destined to fall for whatever trap existed to snare me as I didn’t have to maturity to realize that it was the easy way out to blame the world for my problems.
I’m not afraid of knowledge that is forbidden. Nothing that can be said or expressed will falter how I feel about the world. I believe no book should be banned and I believe individuals should be able to express themselves freely. I also believe we should hold people accountable in a manner that is appropriate. What use do we have canceling and boycotting people holding an opinion that is misinformed, or even one we don’t agree with, but may be properly informed.
What we truly should do is aim to educate people to be better every day. We should raise children that understand the world more deeply and truly than we did. We should encourage humanity to flourish and thrive in a world that embraces its freedom, and chooses to use that freedom to make the world a better place.