This chapter explores why defending artistic expression and historical truth is essential in resisting oppression and maintaining cultural identity.
Protect Your Culture
They Erase What They Fear—Make Sure It Survives.
They don’t always attack with weapons. Sometimes, they attack with erasure, with destruction, of stories, of history, of art. They rewrite textbooks, ban books, burn archives, destroy art, and erase the names of the artists and writers from the records.
They make it as if certain ideas, certain people, certain truths never existed at all. They do this because if they can erase the past, they can shape the future however they like. If they can destroy the art and stories that inspire resistance, resistance itself becomes weaker. If they can make you forget the beauty of the past, they can make you believe that the world has only ever looked dull, grey, and completely void of inspiration.
Why the Destruction of Art and Knowledge is an Act of War
Art is a weapon, and inspiration is a strategy. If you want to fight them, you must first ensure that what they seek to erase is preserved.
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If they erase history, they can rewrite it in their favor. What they cannot twist, they will try to erase entirely.
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When they attack books, music, films, and cultural artifacts, they are attacking the identity and spirit of a people.
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Banned ideas don’t disappear—they become more dangerous. They know this. That is why they don’t just suppress them, but attempt to destroy them completely.
This loss of knowledge is often seen as collateral damage. It is not. It is deliberate. A culture that does not know itself is easier to control. When they take away the stories, when they take away the art, they take away the lessons, the warnings, the possibilities that history once provided, unearthing the very cornerstone of a people’s culture.
How to Resist the Erasure of Knowledge and Art
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Preserve What They Try to Erase - If something is being banned, destroyed, or rewritten, archive it. Copy it. Pass it down. Make sure it exists somewhere beyond their reach.
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Read the Books They Tell You Not to Read - Censorship is a map. If they are afraid of a book, a piece of music, a work of art, there is a reason. Find out what it is.
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Memorize What Cannot Be Written - Not all knowledge can be stored physically. If something is too dangerous to keep on paper, learn it by heart. Teach it in whispers. Pass it down through conversation.
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Protect the Stories of Your Own People - They will try to tell you that your history does not matter. That your stories are not important. That your people have no legacy. That is a lie. Keep your stories alive—tell them, write them, refuse to let them fade.
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Expose the Pattern - They will always pretend that each act of erasure is an isolated incident. It is not. Document the pattern. Show the strategy for what it is.
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Create What They Cannot Control - If they burn the books, write more. If they censor the art, make new. If they silence voices, amplify others. Erasure only works when no one is willing to rebuild what was lost.
First Task: Become a Guardian of Knowledge
It’s time to start preserving cultural artifacts, history, and knowledge.
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Find one book, piece of art, or piece of history that is being erased, banned, or rewritten—preserve it.
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Learn something from oral history—a story, a lesson, a tradition—and commit it to memory.
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Identify a cultural or historical truth that is being distorted and speak the real version.
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If they destroy something, rebuild it. If they silence a voice, become louder.
"If you want to destroy a people, first destroy their books."
— Milan Kundera
Historical Reflection
The Erasure of Indigenous Culture: North America
The Indigenous peoples in North America were methodically stripped of their language, songs, dress, hair, dance, children, and even native foods—not by accident, but by design. Though the atrocities and betrayals committed by the colonizers were (and are) numerous, The following is a short list demonstrating the dismantling of a vibrant culture.
Indigenous languages were seen as barriers to assimilation. Children in residential schools were beaten for speaking their mother tongues. The result? Entire languages died, and with them, the oral histories, traditional knowledge, and ways of thinking that had existed for generations.
Under government programs like Canada’s Residential School System and the U.S. Indian Boarding Schools, Indigenous children were forcibly removed from their families and placed in institutions where they were forbidden to practice their culture. Many never returned home. Those who did often found themselves unable to speak their native language or reconnect with their traditions.
In both the U.S. and Canada, laws were passed banning Indigenous people from practicing their own religions, dances, and ceremonies. The Potlatch Ban (1885–1951) in Canada outlawed one of the most significant cultural gatherings for many Indigenous nations, criminalizing ceremonies that had been practiced for centuries. Traditional regalia and hairstyles were forbidden, further severing people from their cultural identity. Even something as simple as wearing traditional clothing became an act of defiance, punishable by law.
Colonizers understood that food was more than sustenance—it was a connection to culture and sovereignty. The U.S. government deliberately slaughtered buffalo to starve Plains tribes into submission, knowing that without this vital resource, Indigenous nations would struggle to survive. Traditional farming methods were disrupted and replaced with forced reliance on government-issued rations—often unhealthy and insufficient. What had once been a self-sustaining food system was dismantled, leaving Indigenous communities dependent and vulnerable.
This was not just an attempt to erase a people’s past—it was an attempt to shape their future, ensuring that generations of Indigenous people grew up disconnected from their history, their land, and their identity. Sadly, indigenous peoples across North America are still rebuilding what was nearly erased. But the lesson is clear, if you don’t guard your culture, they will take it from you. And once it is gone, reclaiming it is a battle that can last generations.