George Wilson was a reasonable man, perhaps the most reasonable of all the men in the small town of Jonas Falls. Thus, when he came before the Town Council asking that the works of Kurt Vonnegut not be taught in the local high school, the Councilors listened very intently to his arguments.
“I have a daughter of my own,” Mr. Wilson reasonably argued, “and I don’t want her learning not to believe in god from those books. They’re anti-religious and disgusting.”
The Council deliberated for several hours, but the outcome was never in doubt; the books were banned (well, removed from the required reading lists would be a more reasonable way of putting it). After all, the Councilors were reasonable men and women, most of whom had children of their own.
The action seemed quite…reasonable.
Later, Mrs. DeFrance, who was universally respected as a level-headed, reasonable person, made a similar complaint about the works of Margaret Laurence. It took even less time to rid the high school of The Stone Angel and The Diviners; the Council wished to send a clear message to Canadian authors that blasphemous writing would not be tolerated in Jonas Falls.
If Margaret Laurence had received the message, she didn’t acknowledge the fact.
It was only a matter of time before a group of citizens came before the Town Council to complain, in an orderly, reasonable fashion, about the violence in comic books, which were available to children of all ages. Brad Phillips, the spokesperson for SMACK (Save Me from A Comicked Kid), and, by all accounts, an imminently reasonable man, argued the case. Dozens of the group’s founders stood behind him, listening intently to every word.
The Mayor had trouble with the suggestion that comic books not be sold in local stores. Although he was an infinitely reasonable man, the Mayor was also well versed in the political ramifications of interfering with the free enterprise system.
As a compromise, the Town Council asked local merchants to voluntarily refrain from selling the offending comic books. It was a similar system to the one whereby the Town Council had successfully kept pornography out of the movie theatres and off the magazine racks of local shops.
The local merchants tended to be reasonable people. After all, they could lose a lot of business if they weren’t.
By this time, the children of Jonas Falls began to notice a gap in their intellectual development. Something indefinable seemed to be lost as their access to various forms of literature was cut back. Some complained about it.
These kids were being unreasonable. Weren’t their parents protecting them from bad influences that would only hurt their intellectual and emotional growth?
Many children weren’t convinced. They talked to children from other places, children who had access to the forbidden books, and they didn’t seem especially maladjusted or unhappy. A protest was held at the local high school, the one which no longer had all those books, aided by the vice principal, who had always vocally opposed the cutbacks. A couple of the banned authors attended the event, many more wrote letters of support.
Now, the authors had a right to do this: they were looking after their own very reasonable self-interest (to have copies of their books sold). However, the vice principal was being very unreasonable about the whole thing, going against the policy of the legally elected representatives on Town Council.
Soon after the protest, he was fired.
All of the children who had participated in the protest had been intolerably unreasonable. But, as one might reasonably expect, punishment was left in the hands of the offending child’s parents, and such punishments varied wildly.
Most of the Town Council was not satisfied with this state of affairs, though. It was reasonably argued that some action was necessary to show how deeply the community felt on the subject.
A reasonable book burning on the high school lawn followed.
Now, I have never been to Jonas Falls; I’m not even sure that, if called upon, I could place it on a map. The preceding tale was related, in bits and pieces, to me by a friend who hails from the area. Thus, it probably isn’t for me to judge the actions of that town’s people.
Still, I can’t help but wonder: how can so many reasonable people act so unreasonably?