Net-hater Andrew Keen, author of The Cult of the Amateur, warns that Barack Obama’s broadband plan could lead to digital fascism on the U.S.
“Imagine the FDR-baiting, Hitler-loving Father Charles Coughlin, equipped with his ‘personalized’ YouTube channel, able, at a click of a button, to distribute his racist message to the suffering masses,” Keen writes in The Daily Beast.
Now, here’s the kicker. I don’t think Keen is entirely wrong, despite his hyperbole.
I’m still waiting for policymakers of understand the need for a well-stocked national digital library system—and more encouragement of book reading in our schools. That’s what TeleRead is about.
E-books can’t single-handedly save us from fascism if the current recession turns into a full-fledged Great Depression, but they can help, by encouraging more sustained thought than videos could.
Related: The Long Decline of Reading in Adrian Hon’s blog (via Mike Cane). Also see an earlier TeleBlog item, E-books, and prep for teachers and librarians, please, Barak—not just broadband: TeleRead, anyone?
(Beast article found via David Farber’s Very Interesting People List.)