Progress is a natural evolution, email and instant messengers have replaced carrier pigeons and postmen on horseback. Everything is seemingly much more convenient, faster, saving a lot of resources. And the rejection of paper books and paper in general is saving trees, of which there are already so few left. After all, what is the value of a book some could say? Information, not carrier. But, there is always a but.
About 5-10 years ago, with the beginning of the widespread use of smartphones with good screens and e-readers, the following discussion arose in the media:
“Are printed books destined to eventually join the ranks of clay tablets, scrolls and typewritten pages?“
“That e-books have surged in popularity in recent years is not news, but where they are headed – and what effect this will ultimately have on the printed word – is unknown. Are printed books destined to eventually join the ranks of clay tablets, scrolls and typewritten pages, to be displayed in collectors’ glass cases with other curious items of the distant past?“
Seven years have passed since the publication of this article, and in the spring of 2022, the press already wrote:
“Print and digital magazine and newspaper subscriptions and single-issue sales available on Kindle Newsstand will also be wound down next year. Amazon had been offering print magazine subscriptions for sale in the U.S., and digital magazine and newspaper subscriptions and single issues for sale in the U.S. and three other markets.“
An Amazon spokesperson said discontinuing the programs was part of the company’s annual process of reviewing how different businesses are performing. “Following an assessment of our print textbook rentals and our magazine and newspaper subscriptions and single-issue sales, we have made the difficult decision to discontinue these services,” said spokesperson Lindsay Hamilton in a statement.
And now, the declared year has passed and since April, as they say, Amazon completely stops selling printed magazines and books. But is it good or bad? How does this threaten the world?
The sky won’t fall right away. If the ancestors of some English lord started their day with a cup of coffee and reading The Times for 300 years, this tradition is likely to remain. Newspapers smelling of good paper and printing ink have been and will be released, although not everyone will be able to afford them. The same applies to books – in expensive and decent schools, children will learn from paper textbooks and use a fountain pen. However, the broad masses will have to forget about such relic methods of handling information.
In fact, all this digital innovation is terribly convenient, since you can store the US Library of Congress in your pocket and still have a lot of space for text messages. For the vast majorities, getting rid of paper books will be a thrill. Especially Grete, because they will stop cutting down trees.
However, what If, for example, a few people decide to slightly rewrite history. Thus, on April 28, 1975, Newsweek wrote:
“Global temperatures are falling and dire consequences for food production are on the horizon. Meteorologists are almost unanimous in their opinion that this trend will lead to a decline in agricultural productivity before the end of the century. As a result, famine can be catastrophic.”
Today, it’s like a different trend, so when people who could read in 1975 and much earlier asked uncomfortable questions, newspaper managers rushed to dissolve any objections by declaring them as modified fake material. With the transition to electronic newspapers, all this can be cleaned up.
And not only that, but practically anything. As long as the generation of the old and the aging is alive, as long as the books have not yet rotted away, the memory will be alive. But in 50 years or much earlier, only what is written on Wikipedia will be classified as true, everything else will be declared fake and firemen will be called in to burn these fakes.
There is another option that is even more entertaining – the Carrington event, a global nuclear war, or something similar. Everything will be transferred in our wonderous phone library within a second. Something will remain on the compacts, but now people throw them away in boxes with even greater joy than books and wedding VHS. And it’s not a fact that in 20 years, it will be possible to read something from a blank.
All paperback copies will remain in deep and protected underground vaults but who guaranteed that they will be publicly available? The simplest example is the Vatican Library, which has some extremely interesting manuscripts and even antediluvian prints.
Therefore, the rejection of paper media can be used as a way to reset the world and reduce the entire progressive world community and raise a generation of people who will not be able to write or read fluently.
It is not a fact, of course, that this is exactly what will happen, but if the global elites wish, it may well be.
