Literacy is, according to the United Nations, a "major global challenge." The decade 2003-2012 was summarily declared the United Nations Literacy Decade. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) defines literacy as a "right" that is "denied" to people throughout the world. Presented alongside poverty as one of the world's greatest ills, illiteracy is treated like a disease. Yet literacy is not a basic human right, nor is illiteracy a scourge as severe as poverty or malnutrition. Moreover, the UNESCO assertion and corresponding aggressive campaigning for literacy is yet another example of paternalism, a nanny policy crafted by a select few who think they know what is best for the rest of the world. The fact that literacy is correlated with poverty throughout the developing world suggests that poverty, not illiteracy, is the root cause of social ills. Teaching children and adults how to read and write is not going to put food on their table or cure them of AIDS. Therefore, the United Nations should stop phrasing literacy as a human right as important as nutrition, stop dedicating an entire decade to literacy, and instead channel those resources into curing life-threatening disease and poverty.

             The word "preliterate" and the phrase "preliterate society" are thrown around a lot. These terms are culturally biased and laden with value judgments, judgments that lead to nanny proposals such as the UNESCO declaration that literacy is a human right. To say that a society is "preliterate" implies that literacy is an evolutionary step. Calling a society preliterate abnegates the rich cultural traditions that have evolved over millennia. For example, some Pygmy tribes and the peaceful Kalahari Bushmen of Africa never developed literacy at all, but their cultures survived over countless centuries. The Bushmen, in fact, are a rare example of an egalitarian society, indicating that literacy does not necessarily mean equality.