Fahrenheit 451, Deafhood & Critical Thought
Right now I don’t know whether to laugh, or just shake my head in disbelief, at the unfettered stupidity of the post Fahrenheit-451 revisted, or the irony of MM writing about a symbolic book burning action, without really understanding that he is advocating the very same thing that book burning actions are intended to do!
MM, Fahrenheit 451 is about:
“…… a future American society in which the masses are hedonistic, and critical thought through reading is outlawed,”
where
“The “firemen” burn them “for the good of humanity” Wikipedia
To further compound the irony, MM adds a poll on his blog, “Burn the deafhood book, to ease deaf strife?” Does he [or any of his supporters] see the irony?Sure destroy the book, but do you honestly think that the concept of deafhood will die? Symbolically or otherwise?
No apologies necessary, but Fahrenheit-451 revisted is a very, very, very stupid piece of writing, well befitting a person who abhors any kind of critical thought. Doesn’t want to be censored, but would like to censor what he doesn’t agree with.
Whatever MM’s intentions are, symbolically or otherwise, he is actually advocating getting rid of critical thought. Something that Paddy Ladd, as an academic, is very well versed in, and is something that MM is not comfortable with.
Blaming a book, with scant regard to historical precedent, only serves to highlight the critic’s own apathy, laziness, disregard, and complete lack of respect for those who are working to bring new ideas, new perspectives to the debate about Deafness. MM does exactly this, and merely chooses to regurgitate the same complaints as he did when I first encountered him on an email group.
I have tagged this page under Mephisto’s Comedy Festival, because a joke is exactly what this post is!
