Hi Platt, and the police officers get younger everyday too. Seriously though ... where he says "He adds we are creating . . a world in which the lines between fact and opinion, informed expertise and amateurish speculation are willfully blurred."
My take is that this has always been so, and what is in fact new is that so much more of it is exposed and visible. For example - people say 99% of what you find on the internet is crap, but that's because 99% of everything is crap, the difference with the internet is you can find it. I'd argue further that the cult of the generalist / amateur is a good thing - as an antidote to the cult of the specialist / expert / authority - though as with everything all of one or the other is equally bad. I will read the review though - thanks. Ian On 6/29/07, Platt Holden <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > 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 > > moq_discuss mailing list > Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. > http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org > Archives: > http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ > http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/ > moq_discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
