dweller, you may be on to something there. Fear is a great motivation, along with pain. The truth hurts, as they say. If the person dispensing information/reality brings fear and pain by dispelling someone's illusions, that could be a reason to hate them.
But that still doesn't touch on most of the cases. Even when reality is not in the balance, just some moot point, like the use of the nickname "Nigger Jim" in the book Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, people seem to get fired up and want to start burning books. People still aren't over hating Darwin for writing "The Origin of Species", and he was a 19th century scientist.
And these are two 19th century authors we are talking about that have people fired up to this day. I find it hard to believe that these old books with even older ideas can cause the outbreaks of rage they do, especially considering how out-of-date or obsolete they have become in the 21st century.
Fear and pain are good reasons. But they don't cover it all. Or is it my perspective. I love knowledge, but I am always ready to throw away old knowledge when something new comes along that makes more sense, or seems truer. Is there some pain involved in throwing away old knowledge that I don't feel? Does it hurt when the shackles of ignorance are removed? I have always felt a little freer, myself.
Many people remark that the more you learn, the more you realize you don't know. Is this paradox what drives the censors' fear, do you suppose? Everytime they learn something new, or are exposed to new ideas, it opens up their world too much, and shows them how little they know, and how little control they have over the universe or life?
