amateur

some of you may have noticed among my links Booksquare, the premise behind which is"Dissecting the publishing industry with love and skepticism." something i really enjoy and, as a lit geek, i find vastly interesting ... in a recent post they discuss andrew keen and his book, The Cult of the Amateur: How Today’s Internet is Killing Our Culture and Assaulting Our Economy or The Cult of the Amateur: How the Democratization of the Digital World is Assaulting Our Economy, Our Culture, and Our Values (depending on the citation or the country in which it was released). Booksquare's take on his book is yet another reason i really enjoy their site... um, pretentious title aside... is our culture dead? how is the internet responsible for the entirety of economics - rather than say, a decent domestic affairs policy (reaganomics didn't work the first time people!)? and why is it that he feels qualified to discount a huge portion of society and its creative expression by naming them amateurs... i have not read the book(nor will i as stupidity generally makes me want to tear my hair out, and i don't look good bald), and while i will admit the internet has content that i find useless, i do not blame it for the demise of a culture (not convinced that the culture is dead)... the arrogance and elitism inherent here really make me a bit crazy... do they give egos their own time zones? it may be needed here...