Since 1975, Mike Hoy and his publishing company, Loompanics, have published over 300 books with titles such as, "The Art and Science of Dumpster Diving", "Secrets of Metamphetamine Manufacture" and "Understanding U.S. Identity Documents". Now, it looks like Loompanics is going out of business. Via boingboing.net, I read that Mike is closing up shop after 30 years of business. He says that he is going out of business because of the poor economic climate and not from polictical pressure.
Some Loompanics titles have long been a problem for me. When they were publishing books about how to eat cheaply, how to drop out of society and political tracts on corporate fascism, I found them interesting. But when they published books that seem to be nothing more than how-to manuals for criminal activity ("Making Crime Pay" and "Techniques of Safe-Cracking", et.al.), I was very uneasy. I mean, Jesus, I don't want to sell these kind of books.
Until the Iliad Bookshop, I had never worked in a bookstore that carried a lot of Loompanics titles. We keep them in the "oddities" section, and for good reason. These books deal with controversial topics that stretch our constitutional right to free speech almost to the breaking point. Does a book on how to set up a metamphetamine lab really serve a purpose other than to help crooks make money hooking people into a lifetime of drug addiction? Does free speech cover this kind of expression? My good friend Skye and her husband, Skip, had us over for Hoppin John and biscuits on New Year's day, and Loompanics came up during our hours-long conversation. Skye and I both felt that while some Loompanics titles were questionable, the books were still covered by free speech. Lisa and Skip, on the other hand, were adamant that these books did not benefit our community in any way and that local law enforcement should be allowed to have a record of those who sold and purchased books like the metamphetamine one.
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They made compelling arguments, but I still think that you sacrifice too much when you start policing certain books. It's the principle of free speech which is being tested in the case of the Loompanics catalogue. And sometimes you have to allow speech that is questionable in order to stay true to the broader freedom. If we start forcing certain types of speech/books to be curtailed, where does it stop? And I don't trust government to make free speech decisions for us either. Politics and money would rear it's ugly head and principles would go out the window. I wouldn't sell them in my own bookstore, but I don't think others should be prevented from selling them, or have other resptrictions placed on access to these books.
I think Lisa and Skip are probably pleased that Loompanics is packing it in. I'm not so sanguine. At least Mike Hoy's departure from the anarchists book scene is not due to the Patriot act, but the fact that people just aren't buying his books like they used to.
Wikipedia has a good backgrounder on Loompanics, if you are interested in learning more.
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3 comments → Loompanics - Free Speech, or Manuals for Crime?
I agree with you that the value of free speech trumps the possible damaging effects of the Loompanics books.
We have to keep in mind that setting up a meth lab already has consequences -- under the criminal law. (Though whether drugs should be criminalized at all is another question to debate.)
We don't need to broaden the reach of the law from criminalizing the activity to include writing about the activity. No monitoring, or other government oversight, should be triggered by the mere sharing of information from one person to another.
One caveat: If, as in the case with child pornography, the information itself contains within it proof of a criminal act, then of course the government can act. So if a Loompanics book proved with photographs and testimonials that the author did in fact set up a meth lab and sold the products, then that could be used as evidence of a crime -- and used against Loompanics in court!
For a secular person who believes that values are inescapably social artifacts (vitally important, even worth dying for sometimes, but created by human intuition and agreement and not given by God), I believe that free speech is not just a luxury. Free speech is necessary to facilitate the social amplification and continual adjustment of the values by which we live. It is the oxygen of a moral society, one that allows values to match human needs accurately. I don't want anyone or any government telling me when or how I can or can't breathe.
Sure. But did you get the recipe link for Hoppin John?
Nice artillery to use in my debate with Lisa, Tom. Thanks a million.
I liked you idea that it's not a good idea to broaden the reach of the law, but it stills begs the question of what exactly is the purpose of a book devoted to teaching you how to set up a meth lab? It's information, but of a specific type that could lead to criminal activity. Perhaps making it harder to get these kinds of materials is the answer. We already have a waiting period for guns; could we use this as an analogue and set up some sort of monitor for meth, murder, rape, theft and bomb making books? Or do you open the door for curtailing free speech. Ach, I'm thinking in circles!
We aren't in a position to judge what the "purpose" is for these books. Maybe it's a kind of prose poem, maybe it's political agitation -- we can't (who can?) say. What I want my government to concern itself with is the crime not the speech.
I'll get Coley to cook up some "Hoppin' John" tonight -- maybe it will cure my cold.
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