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May 29, 2013StarGladiator rated this title 2.5 out of 5 stars
I admit up front I've never been a real Lanier fan; thinking his work mostly nebulous and lightweight in the cognition department. Sure, he sometimes states the glaringly obvious, not an altogether impressive feat! Lanier's knowledge set, like many one comes across in the IT industry who consider Homer's "Illiad" to be a major feat of reading (we read it in 3rd and 4th grade when I was a kid), is severely limited - - he simply doesn't have a clue to how the world, the overclass, the transnational capitalist class, or global elite (whatever one's term of description) works! Stating the obvious helps some people emotionally, but it is no panacea to what ails us! Shallow thinkers, lacking all or serious depth, like Lanier, believe in the status quo, not questioning what is, but believing only in wrong turns. Today, the private equity firms (they do those leveraged buyouts which destroy companies, employment and the tax base) own the vast majority of telecoms, and exert incredible control over the Web. When free press exerts itself via WikiLeaks, pressure is easily exerted on Amazon, Tableau Software (pulled their paid-for licenses from WikiLeaks), Paypal, Visa, (and individual Euro banks), and so on and demonstrates how easily the situation can be managed by the super-rich and their servants, the corrupt politicians. Ask Jaron (he'll be in town shortly at a book reading) to explain the ownership of AT&T, the most powerful telecom in the house? If he can't do that, he can't to begin to understand what drove a young and gifted fellow to suicide quite recently by the undue pressure exerted by corrupt federal attorneys.