This AP article appeared in the news yesterday. You will want to read it after reading this post.
The article hyperlinked above is unsettling, not because I'm a bibliophile, but because of the article's long-term implications, and what they could mean for posterity. I am no Luddite, but I do know a thing or two about history, and this trend of moving away from the printed page is worrisome.
Johannes Gutenberg's printing press loosed the shackles on mankind. The Internet is in the process of putting them back on. Impossible you say? The Reformation and Enlightenment were launched by the printing press, as was the American and French Revolutions. Those four tectonic shifts ended the Dark Ages while ushering in the modern era. Printing presses hidden away by political dissidents, for 500 years, have been the Tyrant's worst nightmare, an impediment to Dictator's and their hubris. No single invention in history did more for the cause of Liberty.
Now consider the Internet censorship taking place today. Wealthier than any King of the past, and more powerful, today's potentates, the executives at Facebook and Google, enforce their worldview with censorship, while at the same time more and more nations are putting controls on Internet content that threatens the State narrative. Intelligence agencies like the NSA troll the Internet in massive spying operations. We all know that our privacy, once treasured, and once protected by the world's Democracies, is gone forever, swept away by the rising tide of technology. Today's Martin Luthers, Eric Snowden and Julian Assange, have been declared enemies of the realm, living out their days in the modern version of the Tower of London, where dissidents go to die.
Of course, the reasons given for control are carefully crafted to appear pragmatic and necessary: bullying, hate-speech, fake news, terrorism, cyber-crime. But once the libraries are shuttered, and books, newspapers, magazines, and textbooks are gone, - AND THEY WILL BE - whoever controls the Internet will control speech and ideas. This is a step backwards for humanity; from the light of Liberty we are receding into the shadows of Tyranny.
FYI. Anyone, interested in collecting physical, real books, should consider the Goodwill, Salvation Army, Thrift Stores, ETC... Most of their books range from $1 - $3, (price of a Sunday newspaper,) I have picked up high quality, glossy paper, autographed books, by Olympic Champions & Professional Athletes', books. I love old High School & College yearbooks. Many are Leatherbound, with 100-year-old student comments. One book had a $279, MSRP, printed on the dust cover. Most of these books were probably, treasured by original the owners, only to be discarded or donated, by Parent's Children. Book collecting can be a rewarding and inexpensive hobby. And preserving the past, remembering how our Parents and Ancestors lived, and more...