Marin's Anti-Racist Library

I took a walk around Fairfax yesterday and discovered the lovely public library.

Strolling around the shelves, I recalled my elementary school days. I didn't like reading at first. It was hard, boring, annoying. Then Harry Potter changed me.

My dad read books 1 & 2 aloud but refused to help with the 3rd. Instead of taking on The Prisoner of Azkaban directly, I worked my way up by re-reading the first couple independently. Finally, after overcoming werewolves and dementors on my own, I was off to the races.

From 2nd grade until my 20s, I carried a book with me at all times. Aside from basic math skills, developing a love of reading was perhaps the most important intellectual development of my first couple decades on this planet.

Reading enables curiosity. It allows one to go to the source. So when I found this interesting shelf—front and center in the children's section—I couldn't resist picking up some of the books and reading them cover to cover.

My reading journey started and stayed in fantasy land for a long time. There are many books I wish I had read earlier, especially on business and various empowering self-help topics. Queer mythology and racism are not on my list.

To be clear, I applaud exposing kids to difficult questions about society. And there are some valid points encouraging curiosity in these books. But the punch line of "white people don't want to share" seems counterproductive (and in fact, racist). The books themselves point out how nuanced the topic is, "so you have to look really hard to spot it."

I'd hesitate to encourage kids to play a political blame game without first, or in parallel, understanding a lot of other aspects of existence and society. To really foster productive discussion about culture, a true "diverse perspectives" bundle might also include:

• a much bigger picture view of history (Sapiens),
• how human cognitive biases work (Kahneman), and
• a few rational frameworks of moral priorities (Stubborn Attachments, Ayn Rand, Finite and Infinite Games).

With the last bullet, we might as well start studying Rawls, Kant, Aristotle, and all the religious books of history. So isn't Percy Jackson a better spot for kids to start?

"Centering anti-racism" is a fascinating mission to spend a $25M/yr budget of taxpayer money on. And the growth up from $18M/yr in 2021 is astounding, good for them.

Earlier in the day, a friend from Colombia asked me why I'm working on Capitalism Unlocked. I wish I could have taken him with me on my walk. I'm impassioned to speak up and contribute my reading lists to the internet as an alternative to the local library's.

These budgets are market validation, a nice opportunity in plain sight, like Borders and Blockbuster before Amazon and Netflix. They are also frightening. How much more misaligned spending (with disengaged taxpayers) can America tolerate?

Ultimately, it's a sad day in Fairfax. By focusing so heavily on all this propaganda, I suspect the librarians have forgotten about helping kids love to read.