Digital Book Burning: A Reflection on eBooks

No matter how much I try I can't seem to embrace the idea of eReaders and eBooks. I can scarcely think of a more obvious scam. Those looking to buy as eBook will likely pay about as much as a paper back edition of the book they're interested in simply for the right to access the content only? You don't get a copy of the file, and the company selling the books can simply flick a switch at any moment and deny you access to content you've payed for, which has already happened in the past, I might add, when Amazon flicked a switch and thousands of people saw their "copies" of Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell simply vanish from their Kindles. For those who are well read I don't think I have to point out the irony of the fact that it was these two stories that people had removed from their eReaders.

Can nobody see what this is? It is a deliberate effort to remove the opportunity for you to actually own a hard copy of a medium. What will be next? Movies? Is the day approaching in which we will no longer be able to purchase latest DVD or Blu-Ray of our favourite movies? Will we have simply only be able to purchase access to the films we love through the internet or our televisions? And if that is the case, will we be forces to pay every time we wish to view the content, or will we only have to pay for the content once only and be able to watch it as many times as you want? Ask yourself wish is most likely.

Buy the physical book, folks, otherwise, in 20 years, who bloody well knows if there will be any new physical books left for you to buy even if you wish to do so. And even if there is, there is no guarantee you will be able to buy them at a reasonable price. If a day when eBooks sales become the overwhelming majority of book sales comes,  I think it likely that to buy a physical copy of a book will become no more than a novelty and will become grossly overpriced. Almost as buying your favourite band's latest album on vinyl has become.

The publishers want to be able to have complete control over the written word. They want to be able to take it away from you and they want to be able to make sure nobody can view it unless they buy it, after all, how many people are going to lend their eReaders to somebody so they can read a book? Not many. It is nothing more or less a scam by big publishing in hopes that you will all fall for it, that you will completely put control of the written word in their hands to giveth and taketh away as they see fit. And there is another danger. As a society we have come to recognise book burning and everything it represents as a truly despicable act. If our society comes to completely embrace eBooks, who's to say that "digital book burning", so to speak, won't become as easy as somebody saying: "Publisher, turn those books off."?

A Reflection Upon Empathy

For some time I have found myself quite frankly disgusted with the society in which we live. In fact, I think you can disregard that statement; I have been disgusted by the entirety of our species. Not that I hadn't always been, I suppose, but lately I have felt thus quite a deal more than I am accustomed to. I have become inextricably aware of how horrible we as human beings treat each other. And in this case it is not my intent to draw attention to the obvious atrocities to which we are all aware: genocide in Africa and brutality in the Middle-East. No, I speak of the way we treat each other on a more communal level, the way we treat "thy neighbour".

On a near daily basis I can find several examples of somebody, even those whom we may consider decent people by to-day's standard, treating their peers, family, or complete strangers in a manner that is reprehensible; their intent to wound others on an emotional level evident. Decent words cannot describe the disdain I have for people of this nature. The unfortunate consequence of which being the fact that, as such a large number of people act in this manner regularly, I have little desire to make their acquaintance let alone foster friendship with them.

It would be unreasonable, I think, to suggest that each and every person who has at some time or another found themselves moved out of hurt or anger to wound a stranger, a friend, a family member, or a lover with unkind words is deserving of society's abhorrence; we are all guilty of those moments. It is, however, I think, not unreasonable to say that those who actively seek on a regular basis, or even on an irregular basis, to wound and belittle those around them for no discernible reason other than perhaps their own pathetic need to feel superior to those around them, are the most indecent of people among us save the absolute worst of us for which our justice systems have the harshest penalties.

Having been a witness to this on so many occasions, one begins to ask himself "Why? Why do so many seem to have such a need to belittle and hurt so many of the people around them?" and I think, after careful thought, I have come to a personal conclusion as good as any. Empathy; a widespread lack of empathy. This emotion above all others is meant to guide us to treat others as we would have them treat ourselves, with civility and compassion, and yet, I find it lacking in great number of those I encounter. Empathy, it seems, is in short supply. Is it any wonder our society is so full of so many vile, indecent, mean spirited individuals?