Disknowledge dismantles

Looking back on my first W2 job in the 1980’s, I remember feeling proud but sad at the same time. I knew that one day, this building would get taken down because the garrison would eventually be returned to the people of the host country.

Libraries often get repurposed or demolished due to political change. This one was shuttered for good in 2020.

Watching the decline in support for public libraries over the past few decades in the US has been a heartache difficult to describe because it almost always signals a decline in society. It just so happens this society is filled with white supremacists doing everything they can to dismantle public education ever since Reagan got that ball rolling. Book burnings occur on occasion, but I’m more worried about the phase when this regime decides to get rid of public libraries after categorizing them as threats and WMDs.

Currently, we have technology where one can carry several libraries on a device in their pocket. That also means there are bad actors doing whatever they can to digitally pickpocket, restrict access, and rewrite what’s in the repositories made available for a monthly subscription.

How should one build a free and secure resource for factual and trustworthy information in this day and age? How does one make it safely accessible and built to last through the change this country will be going through for years to come?

There’s lots of work to do.