When I first read the post I thought WTF is Fahrenheit 451? This is what wiki had to say:
America which has turned hedonistic and rabidly anti-intellectual, accompanied by the complete abandonment of self-control. At this point, books have been made obsolete due to the increasingly frenetic pace of life and the ever-shortening attention span of the common man — nobody has "time" to read anymore, and possession of books has been forbidden; the minimum punishment is confinement in a mental hospital and having one's house, books and all, burnt by "firemen"; and the maximum, is immediate death. Authors of books have been sentenced to death at the same time. In the government's, and consequently the society's, opinion books contain problems and conflicting theories causing people to be anxious, sad, or angry, and are disruptive to society and full of nonsense. That is what the government wants to prevent, because those feelings could cause the country to go unstable and possibly, the entire human civilization would collapse. The ideas in books are considered heresy to the point that they are burned and destroyed whenever discovered.
I've heard only about 20% of Americans read books.
The greatest threat to the human race is ignorance.
Despair Inc Ignorance
Yes, I think the parent was an idiot for what he did , however if he only read the book, he wouldn't have done it.