Question: What reasons does Beatty give for the current state of society and for books being destroyed? 

In this dystopia that takes place in 2053 books are considered to be like loaded guns because they can be dangerous towards the government. If society has too much knowledge they can find ways to go against the government.  Captain Beatty agrees with the way the government is making society behave. On page 31 Montag is asking Captain Beatty about the fire that happened last week. Beatty says that “they took him screaming off to the asylum.” Montag replies, “he wasn’t insane” Captain Beatty explains to Montag that “any man’s insane who thinks he can fool the government and us.” In this text Beatty doesn’t think anything is wrong with how they treat others with books. They have been burning books for a long time now and he sees it as something  that must be done in order to keep society peaceful and under control. Owning a book is considered a crime and the punishment of burning your belongings is cruel and excessive. Captain Beatty’s job is to destroy the books and he sees nothing wrong in the way society is functioning. Beatty thinks that if you try to go against society it is truly wrong. Montag completely disagrees with society and he envy’s those who read books. Montag is hoping to change the way the movement views books.  However Beatty thinks those with books are sneaky and evil to possess literature. Beatty thinks society must obey the rules the government has created in order to have a functioning society. In the eyes of the government a functioning society is when the public follows his rules about not reading books or owning books and no one should question his authority.