Musing: books - Can books cause harm?

The site goodreads is now blocked in Iran. Let's get this straight before we begin: I don't think that's a good thing. I don't think that's right. If I could wave a magic wand and fix the world, me being me, I'm afraid that might be one of the first things I'd fix right now, just because it would spring to mind. The Iranian government are seeking to prevent discussion, specifically of books -- although the goodreads site is a great forum for all kinds of discussion, because of the kind of people that populate it and the kind of space it is. That's wrong. It isn't going to stop people discussing books or whatever it is that the Iranian government don't want discussed, anyway, not if those people passionately want that discussion. But it's throwing a spanner in the works, disrupting existing conversations, blocking people from finding other people who share their opinions or who might revolutionise their opinions.

I am absolutely opposed to the fact that goodreads is blocked in Iran. However, this post is not directly about that. The post is about something an Iranian member and the goodreads staff both asserted:

One Iranian Goodreads member wrote to us and confirmed the news: "your site is recently been filtered by our horrible govrnmt. pls help us! spread it...books make no harm."

We couldn't agree more. Books make no harm.

I disagree. Books can make harm, just as they can make good. If they can't do the one, I don't believe they can do the other, either -- if they're a force for good, they can also be a force for bad. I say this while loving books -- everyone on this journal's flist probably realises that -- and ranking reading as one of the most important things I do every day, right up there with "waking up", "eating" and "breathing". I say this while thinking that books are my best friends. So please, please, don't make the assumption that I'm saying books are universally a bad thing, or anything like that.

( It goes on... )