[MD] Quality decline

[Micah]

Is the sky falling, Chicken Little?

Micah





Hi All,

A book review in today's NY Times has confirmed what I've suspected for
a long time -- a general decline in the quality of Western culture. The
review can be seen at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/29/books/29book.html

In his book entitled "The Cult of the Amateur" the author opines we are
creating a world in which we will  “live to see the bulk of our music
coming from amateur garage bands, our movies and television from glorified
YouTubes, and our news made up of hyperactive celebrity gossip, served up
as mere dressing for advertising.” This is what happens, he suggests,
“when ignorance meets egoism meets bad taste meets mob rule.”

He adds we are creating  ". . . a  world in which the lines between fact
and opinion, informed expertise and amateurish speculation are willfully
blurred."

He goes on to point out the weaknesses of Google, Wikipedia, and YouTube
and  worries that: "By stealing away our eyeballs, the blogs and wikis are
decimating the publishing, music and news-gathering industries that
created the original content those Web sites ‘aggregate.’ Our culture is
essentially cannibalizing its young, destroying the very sources of the
content they crave.”

Whether you agree with the author or not, I think you'll find the review
interesting in that it directly addresses the issue of Quality in our
lives. Certainly during my years on earth I've seen a decline in music,
art, and literature not to mention the judiciary, education and politics.

Regards,
Platt

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