The Cult of the Amateur - Or the Griping of the Dying Elite?

Annoymouse's picture

This book review does not mention 9/11, but you can just feel our presence oozing behind the text. The book reviewed argues against the democratizing effect of the Internet, claiming that we are all going to suffer as a result of the crap that now passes for news and entertainment as a result of sites like Google and YouTube.

Of course I'm not defending those sites, for obvious reasons, but this guy Andrew Keen seems to be protesting too much. From his smug puss pictured on the review it's clear that he feels that this democratizing effect benefits amateur hacks instead of seasoned professional hacks like himself. Can anyone really bemoan the decline of pseudo-credible news outlets like the New York Times, or pseudo-entertainment like Everybody Loves Raymond, or claim that Britney Spears is a phenomenon more attributable to the bad taste of the masses than of the very media companies for whose financial fate the author expresses concern?

Could it be that this is a knee-jerk reaction to the threat posed by the newfound ability of millions of people to serve as watchdogs of the corporate media and their bought and paid for politicians? That consensus is hard to manufacture when your bullshit won't fly any farther than anyone else's regardless of your self-assigned reputation as the "paper of record"?

Where has this guy been since deregulation and consolidation led all of the media to become so incestuous, ineffective, and downright pathologically and criminally crappy? Such that people have found in internet mash-ups a perfectly acceptable alternative. Why, he even blames the Iraq War on the will of the uninformed masses instead of on the deliberately misinforming media! I can only imagine the arguments that people dumb enough to take this book seriously will begin to level against 9/11 truth as a result--see what happens when you give power to the people? And how.

Behold our amateur crap, ye mighty, and TREMBLE!