He does it in a nice way, of course — and, more than that, a thoughtful and erudite way — but David Weinberger’s summary of Andrew “the Internet is killing culture” Keen’s arguments (such as they are) nevertheless dismantles and mulches the prominent pundit’s points perfectly.
To his credit, Weinberger — author of Everything Is Miscellaneous — doesn’t just bash Keen and his idiotic meanderings outright. Instead, he carefully lays out what he believes is the best possible interpretation of Keen’s arguments, and then painstakingly dismantles that. In one of the best parts, he says:
“I think that’s one reason so many of us find Keen’s book frustrating. It’s like reading an argument against democracy that keeps pointing at how many people there are and how much they disagree with one another.
That’s not an argument against democracy. That’s the problem democracy was invented to solve. Likewise, the Web was invented to solve the problem of scale.”
It’s a long post, but worth the read. For some additional points, check out the full text of a “Reply All” debate between Keen and Weinberger that ran in the Wall Street Journal earlier this year. As some of you long-time blog readers may know, I am not exactly a fan of Mr. Keen’s. And it seems that Tom “plasticbag” Coates has some issues with him as well, as he articulates in this recent post.