Kudos to Ryan Holiday for Standing on Principle
Kudos to Ryan Holiday for standing up against book banning and for promoting the thoughtful examination of ideas.
Ryan Holiday, popularizer of Stoic philosophy and author of such books as The Daily Stoic and The Obstacle Is the Way, was invited to give a lecture at the U.S. Naval Academy in April. Then, one hour before the lecture, the academy canceled it.
The reason? Holiday had planned to criticize the Trump administration’s executive order banning all “DEI-related content” from government-run schools, which it later extended to include military academies.1
Although some books are clearly evil, such as How to Be an Antiracist, and most parents wouldn’t want their young students reading them, the executive order not only takes away from schools a decision that rightfully should be made by them (or in the case of young students, by teachers and parents); it also uses vague language, thus creating major problems for institutions implementing it. The Naval Academy, a university-level institution, attempted to comply with the order by removing 381 books from its library shelves.2 Those books included I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, the autobiography of the American author and civil rights activist Maya Angelou; and Memorializing the Holocaust by Janet Jacobs—but concerningly, not such hate-filled screeds as Mein Kampf.3 Holiday refused to omit the criticism from his talk, explaining, “I couldn’t have spoken in front of these midshipmen about courage and about doing the right thing, and then remove, I think, a very reasonable objection to a very egregious concept.”4
In a CNN interview, Holiday stated that he had planned to urge cadets to “read critically and read dangerously” because “the point of a university is to teach people to think. . . . The core strength of the American military is the mind and the ability to think critically and independently of our officers.” Thus, hiding ideas and information from potential military leaders is completely contrary to the purpose of the academy. Holiday acknowledged that many books in the university’s library are probably bad, and many contain ideas he disagrees with; though he doesn’t use such language, some are even downright evil. But Holiday advised reading those kinds of books so you can understand and engage with steelman versions of opposing ideas. He recommended following the Stoic philosopher Seneca’s advice to “read like a spy in an enemy camp,” particularly for a person who is training to be a leader and who will thus need to make difficult decisions and effectively manage people who hold a variety of ideas.5
This is good advice. Clarifying one’s views, deepening one’s understanding, and strengthening one’s convictions require grappling with opposing ideas. But even more impressive was Holiday’s stand for free speech and against book banning; he referenced the ominous reminder that “those who burn books will in the end burn people.”6 Above all, he argued for respecting the minds of the students, who in this case are adults training to be military leaders; they can and must think for themselves. He properly dismisses the Trump administration’s argument that removing the books was about keeping the academy apolitical, remarking,
It says something about where we are today that the decision to say “Hey, I think book banning is bad” in a talk I was supposed to deliver about wisdom. . . is dismissed as a political argument; [that] says something about how skewed our politics have gotten. . . . This is largely about control here; this is about deciding what people can and can’t say.7
As long as government controls education, book banning will be a complex subject with no easy answers. But those who love liberty and reason should be concerned when a government is trying, not honestly to protect young minds from terrible ideas (though not the proper province of government, this at least is well-intentioned) but, rather, to shield adults from content it deems “divisive.” Education exists to train people to think; military academies exist to train future leaders to make the difficult decisions their career path will require of them. Removing books from such institutions works against those worthwhile purposes. Kudos to Ryan Holiday for recognizing this, for standing up against book banning, and for promoting the thoughtful examination of ideas. May more intellectuals follow his example and use whatever platform they have to maintain such principled, rational stances.
Government-run schools are created, funded, and maintained by force and the threat of force. Government forces taxpayers to fund them and forces students to attend them; if people do not comply, their property or freedom can be forfeited. This makes such institutions immoral and leaves education in the hands of politicians. See “The Obscenity of Banning Books,” The Objective Standard, August 27, 2024, https://www.theobjectivestandard.com/p/the-obscenity-of-banning-books?utm_source=publication-search; C. Bradley Thompson, “Education in a Free Society,” The Objective Standard, November 20, 2013, https://www.theobjectivestandard.com/p/education-in-a-free-society/. ↑
Natasha Bertrand, “U.S. Naval Academy Canceled Author’s Lecture that Would Have Criticized Book Bans,” CNN Politics, April 19, 2025, https://edition.cnn.com/2025/04/19/politics/us-naval-academy-canceled-authors-lecture-book-bans. ↑
John Ismay, “Who’s In and Who’s Out at the Naval Academy’s Library?” New York Times, April 11, 2025, https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/11/us/politics/naval-academy-banned-books.html. ↑
Bertrand, “U.S. Naval Academy Canceled Author’s Lecture.” ↑
Ryan Holiday, Facebook, April 29, 2025, https://www.facebook.com/reel/708161194942664. ↑
“The Tale of Two Book Burnings: Heine’s Warning in Context,” March 13, 2014, Central European University, https://www.ceu.edu/article/2014-03-13/tale-two-book-burnings-heines-warning-context. ↑
Holiday, Facebook. ↑