They won't have to worry about that much longer. The Los Angeles Public Library keeps cutting staff and hours. Won't be long now till they'll just put the books on Craig's List and then sell off the facilities to some corporation to collect rents on. Libraries are a luxury for the commoners, and commoners aren't allowed luxuries in the feudalistic austerity world of the 21st Century.
This is interesting to me because for the most recent few centuries libraries saw increased accessibility by we riffraff. At one time books themselves were beyond rare, over time coming from a single tome in a monastery to literally a link to the world's knowledge being just a miles away. Libraries still have a purpose, particularly as long as we hold onto traditional copyright and intellectual property paradigms that prevent dissemination into the public domain. But by-and-large the Internet has the collected knowledge available openly and there is no doubt going forward new understanding will show up online rather than stored on dusty shelves and on newsprint. The concept of a library still sticks in people's minds as a building with books. You can learn everything a graduate of MIT would learn, just without reception of the degree, for free. Imagine if Galileo or Newton or Einstein had MOOC like edX, Coursera, MIT Online in their day.
Access to primary sources of news and knowledge has never in the history of humankind been so easily achieved. It's this openness that worries the 1% you deride, thus we get SOPA, CISPA, PIPA, etc. The loss of the 'Some are more equal' status would continue to level the playing field. Who would have the most to lose with a truly free and open Internet? Those who would prefer some things never see the light of day or that some voices never have a soapbox. No, of course, controlling the flow of information through accepted channels is just for our protection, lest we be subjected to unapproved falsehoods. I understand the down side of people losing their economic livelihood, it's unfortunate. Thing is I see anything that eliminates barriers to access as positive, in this case removal of censorship (regardless if it's nefarious or honest editing) to news.
Yea. The other day my son was telling me about how a friend of his was telling him how he saw this documentary, and it turns out that mermaids are actually real! My son said he whipped out his smartphone and in 10 seconds of searching knew the truth about the "mockumentary". Then he showed it to his friend - who was doubtful. The guy couldn't decide whether to believe the mockumentary or the endless news stories saying it was a hoax. He couldn't decide!
How often are
The Onion or
The Daily Currant stories linked on Facebook or Twitter as actual news? A lot it seems to me. To understand satire requires a fair amount of critical thought and basic state of information on matters. It's not hard to sniff it out when you're willing to read once in a while and let a few brain cells rub shoulders by taking a break from the idiot box.
