Literate? Thank a librarian (among others), and celebrate with us here at the mojowire as we party down for Library Advocacy Day (although, technically it was yesterday).
There was a rally in Washington, D.C. where librarians and their friends met and lobbied government officials for more library friendly policies.
I can hear your complaint's though, "Library Advocacy Day? Seriously? That really seem necessary?"
Consider this, "Fox News Attacks Chicago Libraries":
Are Libraries Necessary or Are They a Waste of Tax Payer Money?
They eat up millions of your hard earned tax dollars. It's money that could be used to keep your child's school running. So with the internet and e-books, do we really need millions for libraries?
Warning: do not click through the link from MediaBistro to the Fox News site, it's replete with horrible adware and pop ups that will try to eat your browser. Typical.
Anti-intellectualism has been a defining mark of movement conservatives, like an ugly, scabby mole they refuse to have removed because they think it adds character to their already mottled features. Bad news for them, though: that anti-intellectualism mole, may turn out to be a malignancy...
Truth be told, they don't give a rat's ass about the cost of libraries. It's what libraries represent that makes them squirm: easily available access to knowledge from across a broad spectrum of ideas and disciplines.
The war on plurality being waged by movement conservatives must, by definition, include a war on open access to information and ideas. Anything that would threaten to make knowledge and ideas easily available to the masses and allow questions of and challenges to the received wisdom from "Authority" is therefore wasteful and even a little bit immoral.
This also ties in with the "Right to Read" issue, where knowledge is finally converted into a commodity and controlled by a small group of oligarchs who then have an inordinate amount of influence over what you see and think. Naturally, free public libraries would be an anathema to such a group...
Think of that last clause in the Fox News quote: "So with the internet and e-books, do we really need millions for libraries?" The Internet and e-books are things that can have their content and distribution more easily controlled and in turn, converted into capital.
It is this intersection of the New Right with capitalist intentions of cornering the market on knowledge and ideas that would pose a significant threat to the Republic if it ever gained any real traction.
And that's why there's a Library Advocacy Day and why ALA needs to be shown some love from us, wireheads. Because these people really do exist, and they gain a little more political capital everyday, it seems.
mojo sends
