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Some believe the burning of the Koran by Terry Jones, the mustachioed minister from Florida with a flock of a few dozen, is a grave offense. Some believe that the American flag should not be burned. But one can ask, can we preheat these items to 300 degrees Fahrenheit? What about leaving the Bible or any other holy book in a car with the windows shut on a stifling day?
Better yet, one might ask, who owns these items? In the digital age, the burning of a book hardly differs from kindling or a Kindle. But as one might hear in an argument, “I can’t control your reactions to my words.”
Just as college protestors burn the American flag on campus (a mandatory assignment, usually), whose legality was argued by the Supremes (Texas vs. Johnson) the only issue to burning a book (your Holy or my Moly), is whether I have legally purchased it.
If it is my property, why could I not use a dozen books someone might deem holy, such as, say, Jonathan Franzen’s new novel Freedom, to fuel my fireplace. And I envision the real fireplaces with flues and pokers. The point is, if I can buy books cheaper than fire logs, it’s no one’s business what I do with them.
Reification of an item or word into something real is a transmutation our species of mammal does well and easily. We conflate a gesture with real aggression. If someone gives me the finger while driving I can choose to enrage myself or not.
Of course “holy-book” burning is very exploitable by both politicians, clerics, and academics. This exploitation is possible because of our visceral (but nutty) reactions to inherently gestural stimuli. The purpose of exploiting Yosemite Sam’s burning a book? I’ll let you decide. New York artist Andre Serrano putting a cross in a jar of urine is only offensive (and notable) if commissioned by a government office at taxpayer expense.
Newsworthy gestures might be a rallying cry for allegiance. Certainly, realpolitik may require that we use judgment in expression because of the crazies around the world. However, harming individuals is a very different category of offense. No one is harmed during a peaceful protest, or book burning, we hope. But aggression towards or harm to a person is a real crime, and should be penalized.
Our tendency toward self justification makes us want to find offense, a cause, and fight an enemy. It is usually in the service of self aggrandizement (an adaptive vestige of our stumbling history in the service of furthering genetic interests) rather than justice.
Mental health requires that one stops taking pranks too seriously, whether they’re incendiary antics or pomo art.
