Thursday, June 09, 2005

The Book Burning Pile

Mein Kampf actually made the "most harmful books" list at Human Events Online. Though this a pleasant surprise (however, I suspect it's a little insincere), it's only second to the Communist Manifesto. The rest are pretty predictable: Marx again, Keynes, Kinsey. But I'm really surprised poor John Dewey placed so highly (ahead of Foucault even!). But then the threats of secular humanism and educational reform are just slightly less menacing to wingnuts than are those of communism and homosexuality.

The also rans listed at bottom are hilarious: Rachel Carson, Darwin (twice), Margaret Mead... Too funny.

Here's their little blurb about Keynes's offending text:

The book is a recipe for ever-expanding government. When the business cycle threatens a contraction of industry, and thus of jobs, he argued, the government should run up deficits, borrowing and spending money to spur economic activity. FDR adopted the idea as U.S. policy, and the U.S. government now has a $2.6-trillion annual budget and an $8-trillion dollar debt.


No mention is made of who ran-up that debt and who forced that budget.

**Edit: I should have known somebody already gave this the attention that it deserved. My post is very half-assed. Lance Mannion's is better.