Books

You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.
Ray Bradbury

In order to have a culture you must have shared beleifs and shared knowledge. Long ago people shared their beleifs through stories and poems that they were constantly sharing and reciting, especially to the next generation. Then we learned how to read and write, which proved to be a much more efficient method of keeping everyone aware of the cultural history since a person didn't have to physically be around to impart information. So memorizing and reciting stories died out and we started writing books.

Apparently throughout written history civilizations have regularly risen and fallen. And it seems like it's when they're falling that they burn books. Perhaps the most dramatic example of this was when one of the later Roman emperors (whose mental facility was questionable at that point) decided to burn the great library at Alexandra so that the baths in Rome could be heated. I shudder to think of all the valuable cultural information that was lost then. But people are still doing things like that today, especially in wartime. We haven't learned.

You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture however. All you need to do is to get people to stop reading them. If nobody reads them, the information will still be lost. Perhaps that's why Christian right-wing groups are always trying to get books banned that don't agree with their own philosophy. Reading books is really important, perhaps especially reading books about subjects you are unfamiliar with or controversial subjects. It is not just about finding practical information, although all of the most successful people read books all the time for that purpose. It's also about finding the shared knowledge of a culture; and discovering an important part of who you are as well as who the people around you are. Make sure you set aside some time today to read a good book.