WHAT RAY BRADBURY HAS TO SAY TO US TODAY

“There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches.”
― Ray Bradbury 

Ray Bradbury was acutely aware that human society can easily become oppressive and regimented.

His Fahrenheit 451 (the temperature at which paper burns) seems a precursor to today's Cancel Culture.

If I dislike a shirt you wear, I try to get you fired, kicked from whatever medium you speak upon.  

In essence, I try to erase, to burn you from existence.


The ability to reason is what sets humans apart from animals and technology; 

we must not squander this evolutionary advantage!

I do not see much evidence of reason in mobs that pull down statues that offend them.  

The rule of law says that we seek legislation to remove those statues without vigilante storming,


How can Gov. Cuomo or Mayor Bill de Blasio, justify penalizing anyone for drinking or dining in the streets, when they all but cheer people protesting?

If it is all right to protest, how can you ban funerals?

It is 1984's DOUBLE SPEAK but this time in reality.



What would Ray Bradbury urge us?
 “Don't ask for guarantees. And don't look to be saved in any one thing, person, machine, or library. 

Do your own bit of saving, and if you drown, at least die knowing you were heading for shore.”
 
 "But you can't make people listen. 

They have to come round in their own time, wondering what happened 

and why the world blew up around them. It can't last.”

― Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451