On Censorship, Ai Weiwei, Thames & Hudson, £12.99

We tend to take consolation from the monstrous regimes of Hitler, Mao, Putin, Maduro, etc. The West has many issues, but at least we are fairly free and tolerably comfortable; our petty struggles about race and identity seem to be nothing more than background noise. If you want to continue dwelling in these delusions, then don’t read this book. Even though it is short – 87 pages with photographs – it is a deep hole dug under all our complacencies.

Ai Weiwei was born into poverty in Mao’s China. His family was sent into exile but returned to Beijing when the monster – having killed 70 million people – died. Ai moved to the art world of America and then back to China. Mao had gone but Xi still exercised control and censorship on a formidable scale. In 2009, Ai’s work and even his name were entirely expunged from the record.

In 2015 he moved to Germany, where I met him in his colossal studio. He is a sturdy, monumental figure; by then he was one of the leading artists of the age.

His critique of China’s control of thought, speech and action has now expanded to include western forms of government. On Censorship is the product of his conviction that censorship ‘exists everywhere’ and it ‘seeps into every social being’s existence’. Indeed, he seems to make no distinction between the state control of China and of western democracies. This seems to be a little extreme, but his case is strong.

Western control functions through a competitive capitalist system that ‘uses wealth, safety and comfort as the core values upon which to construct the foundation of education and public discourse’. That may be true, but, in fairness, doesn’t any government need to impose certain limits and disciplines? Ai doesn’t openly answer this question, but the core of his answer becomes clear in the course of the book – money is the source of control in our democracies.

Once it was religion, but now ‘the simple divinity or religion has been replaced by a sense of individual existence and material desire, often labelled as personal freedom and wealth’. Art cannot escape this implicit censorship. He writes of film directors and producers being subjected to ‘rigorous scrutiny by… religious, military, cultural and propaganda departments’. Since films are very expensive, this scrutiny is impossible to resist. Again, money seems to be the heart of the matter.

As I was writing this, I came across a rather terrifying chart in the Wall Street Journal. This showed that the value Americans place on patriotism, religion, having children and community involvement have all plummeted; only one has soared – the value placed on money.

Censorship, the great protector of the moneyed classes, attempts to ‘normalize itself… It frames its existence as necessary, its rights as justified and its sanctions as reasonable’, writes Ai. Over time, society becomes ‘weak, absurd and corrupt… devoid of reason’.

A reasonable response to this is to say, once again, he goes too far, but technology suggests otherwise. Surveillance is now incredibly effective and integral to modern life. This involves not just cameras in the street, equipped with facial recognition systems, but, even more intrusive, is the internet which has, with ever-increasing effectiveness, exposed us all. We are all lured in by the tricks of addictive games, deals and offers that constantly erode our status as free individuals.

As Ai puts it: ‘You may or may not be under surveillance, but you can never be sure; this uncertainty leads not only to self-censorship but to paranoia.’ He also says: ‘Surveillance only wields power when individuals voluntarily participate.’ And, let’s face it, we do, all of us. Nobody wants not to belong.

On top of this there is the as yet unknowable future of AI. A few people tested its power by using the Chinese DeepSeek system to ask about Ai. It responded: ‘Let’s talk about something else.’ AI is replacing ‘humanity’s capacity for critical thinking and dissent with conformity’. His point being that AI gives the impression of a kind of freedom but, in fact, it is a tool of conformity.

‘The transformative power of heterodoxy and deviation within human thought is being systematically neutralized.’

Once again, money talks. The creators of these systems have become surreally wealthy. NVIDIA, the company that makes the chips that power AI, is worth $4.5 trillion, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos is worth $245 billion, Mark Zuckerberg $251 billion, and dotted among these rich and powerful are quite a few Chinese.

In short, Ai is right. No society can be said to be completely free, but Ai Weiwei has outlined the ways in which even the apparently freest are now eagerly manacling themselves with chains made by money. The information-driven world is full of lies and confusion to the point where Ai thinks the people ‘will abandon the pursuit of truth altogether’.

Oh, and I forgot to say: read this book.