--- In rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, "gsp.schoo@..." <gsp.schoo@...> wrote:
>
> Thanks for this. However, the salivating desire of corporations for short term profit without regard for longer term consequences is, for me, so evidently the inability to resist an overwhelming wave that I can't take your insight as a correction.
>
We should talk a bit about why the "wave" (many waves, actually) is perceived to be overwhelming. Is it that the organized life is such that it kills off any other way of life, in effect makes it inviable? For an obvious example, giving the streets to cars in effect precludes people from walking on them. So it is a disabling technology.
We should think about disabling technologies. With an ax, you can cut wood and warm yourself. With twenty intermediaries feeding into a "warming system" you are, as the saying goes, fucked.
The great virtue of the book is that it is an enabling technology, paticularly with public libraries. The marginalized people will not be buying Kindles or dowloading books from Amazon. If libraries close, they simply won't have access to books.
By the way, I consider this discussion to be right on topic, so no apologies for participating by anybody, please!
Best,
mrt
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 13 Nov 2009 EST