In the era of Donald Trump, the United States is experiencing an unprecedented wave of book bans, with PEN America documenting nearly 23,000 cases since 2021. This phenomenon has multiple factors, but the strongest is the belief that reading certain works can affect students' thinking due to sexual content or an ideology contrary to the current administration.
Consequently, books by vastly different authors, such as Stephen King (the most banned author with 206 cases) and Gabriel García Márquez, have landed on the banned list. Notably, 'One Hundred Years of Solitude' was banned in Florida, and 'Love in the Time of Cholera' in Texas. The reasons for the bans are not always clear, but conservative groups point to sexual, religious, and ideological elements.
According to philosopher Byung-Chul Han, the erosion of democracies begins when their foundations are distorted, starting with thought. In an interview, he noted that we live in 'false democracies' that are reduced to mere formal procedures like elections, lacking the morals and virtues (civics, responsibility, trust, respect) that underpin a healthy society. When these virtues disappear, politics devolves into a struggle for power, and people, fearing social decline, turn to autocrats and populists.
Trump, as he confessed in the book 'Fear,' uses fear as a tool of power. This fear, along with the denial of reality through language, are key strategies for maintaining control. In his acceptance speech for the Princess of Asturias Award, Byung-Chul Han emphasized that a society without thought and books risks losing its way. In such an environment, any dissenting opinion is declared an enemy, and problems are denied.
