I’m still waiting for my new book, Behold!, to be published–we’ve got a paper shortage! Another piece of our national economy that’s not working lately. But there’s another thing that concerns me.
Who’s going to read it?
Is anybody reading anymore? Even blog traffic is down all over, it’s not just me. They’ve gone from not reading books to not reading blog posts. At this rate there’ll be nothing left but HOW RU? And maybe little pictographs to tide us over until writing is re-invented.
The poor Time-Traveller! He wants to know all about the limp, passive Eloi, and they can’t tell him. Finally he asks if they have books. “Oh, yes, we have books.” Huzzah! “Books will tell me what I want to know!” What does he learn from the books that the Eloi have let crumble into dust?
What would our Constitutional Convention have produced, if its delegates–our country’s founders–were all non-readers? No history, no classics, no philosophy… Maybe not even the Bible, although I like to think that would have been the last to go.
Well, we won’t need censorship if the people just stop reading.