Terror Against Literacy
1975 was called “year zero” in Cambodia. Pol Pot, the leader of the Khmer Rouge which had just won a civil war, renamed the country Kampuchea, isolated it from the world, and moved the inhabitants of Phnom Penh into the country. His intent was to create a pure, rural communist society. Needless to say, the Khmer Rouge were incompetent leaders. The famine that followed year zero killed hundreds of thousands. But on top of accidentally killing a large part of the Cambodian population, the Khmer Rouge intentionally killed a large part. They went after intellectuals and educated Cambodians because they were seen as potential leaders in a rebellion against the Khmer Rouge. The killing of smart people has long been a tactic of fascists like the Khmer Rouge. The Intelligenzaktion or the mass shootings of intellectuals was part of Nazi Germany’s strategy in Poland. It’s a tried and true method to weaken resistance. In Cambodia, hundreds of thousands of educated, middle class people were tortured and murdered in special prisons, like the Tuol Sleng jail. In the end, 2.2 million Cambodians died because of the Khmer Rouge. Their bloody rule was ended in 1979 when the Khmer Rouge was defeated by the invading Vietnamese.
I thought of this terrible episode in world history because it seems to be starting up here. Libraries have become a favorite target of our home grown fascists, the Republican Party of Donald Trump. I just read of an frighteningly effective act of terror against librarians in Montana.
On Aug. 3, library staff in Kalispell found five books left in the overnight drop box that appeared to have been shot with a firearm. […] Two days later, two more books were found with bullets lodged in them. Library staff say that similar markings on the books indicated they were likely from the same person. “Library Sees Resignations Following Bullet-Riddled Books” by Micah Drew, Flathead Beacon, August 29, 2022
That is terrifying enough. And I’m sorry to say, it worked.
"While director Ashley Cummins said law enforcement still did not feel there was any threat to the community, members of the library staff opted to leave their positions.
“They said they did not feel safe coming to work anymore,” Cummins said. “They signed up to be library workers, they didn’t sign up for that.”
The cops seem to think one person had shot the books and placed them in the drop box. So one ignorant fascist terrorist managed to frighten two librarians away from their jobs. I’m sure Proud Boys and Oath Keepers all over America are taking note.
I think the Nazis and Khmer Rouge had clearly defined goals in killing intellectuals. The home-grown fascists seem less explicit (although I am not privy to their private communications). But they are always complaining about “elitists”. But what they seem to hate are people who read and think for themselves.
In the mid-80s, I read Antipoems: New and Selected by the great Chilean poet Nicanor Parra. One amusing poem went like this:
Torture doesn't have to be
bloody
Take an intellectual for example—
just hide his glasses;
(Translated by Paul Pines)
Yeah, Nicanor—tell that to the librarians in Kalispell, or to the victims in the Tuol Sleng jail.
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