{"id":480,"date":"2015-03-12T07:27:00","date_gmt":"2015-03-12T07:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mrmushava.wordpress.com\/2015\/03\/12\/mob-2-0-internet-culture-and-the-economy\/"},"modified":"2026-10-26T07:49:21","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T07:49:21","slug":"mob-2-0-internet-culture-and-the-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blockspaceballads.com\/?p=480","title":{"rendered":"Mob 2.0 \u2013 Internet, Culture and the Economy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Add caption<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Book: The Cult of the Amateur\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

Author: Andrew Keen <\/span><\/span><\/b><\/div>\n
Publisher: Currency (2007)<\/span><\/span><\/b><\/div>\n
The digitally enabled democratisation of information and creative content has been widely lauded as progressive.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
Most current discussions loosely converge around such catch-phrases as Web 2.0 revolution, ICTs and digitisation.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
One is either in the loop or finding their way in. To be outside is to be branded a laggard as the cosmic ferment substitutes citizens with netizens.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
The democratic merits of the revolution are seldom in question. For most, it is the high point of democracy as Web 2.0 protocols level the arena and empower netizens to acquire, deliberate and share information and opinion.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
Outside the civic domain, web-based platforms have revolutionised the reception of creative content.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
Access to content, from classics to contemporaries, has been vastly enhanced. Artists and writers command new podiums for uninhibited self-expression (or is it pedestals for inflated self-exhibition?)<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
But not everyone is impressed. The reactionaries, though a wafer-thin minority, range from the laggards and the indifferent to the hostile.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
Of the furthermost category, Andrew Keen has emerged as a spokesperson, casting himself into an Ardonite firebrand, complete with a quiver of scathing anti-Web 2.0 polemics.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
In \u201cThe Cult of the Amateur,\u201d Keen trash talks the Web 2.0 revolution and incriminates it for destroying culture, popularising mediocrity and bleeding the economy.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
Keen insists from the outset that he is not punching above his weight, having dabbled with Internet start-ups, including the now obsolete Audiocafe.com, as a Silicon Valley entrepreneur himself.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
The fallout point, his backsliding from an insider to a reactionary, was occasioned by what he perceives to the web-based transformation of culture into a dissonant racket.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
Keen claims that mediocrity and amateurism have become the new normal as anyone with an opinion can take to blogosphere, YouTube, MySpace or Wikipedia (Facebook now leads the pack) without commitment to quality and authenticity.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
He questions the wisdom (or lack of it) of a web-captive generation that has blindly thrown its weight behind a culture which encourages plagiarism and piracy as well as crippling tradition media and creative institutions. <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
Locally, the implications are precipitate. Around half a year ago, Literature Today posted an instalment, \u201cZimbabwean literature operating at zero profitability,\u201d which I hoped would jolt stakeholders across the book value chain to action. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
Veteran writer Aaron Chiundura Moyo, indicated that he was capping his pen after the publication of his next book, citing measly royalties. Moyo revealed that he has earned less than $400 from his 14 books between 2000 and 2014.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
Few months later, highly regarded Shona novelist Ignatius Mabasa intimated that he was job-hunting. Mabasa had left his day job to concentrate on writing and publishing, only to reckon with a reality check in the face of proliferate copyright infringement.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
While poor sales are not so much a result of electronic duplication as they are of street vending, one may argue that the biggest challenge threatening the sustainability of our literary sector is the digital migration of readers \u2013 from Feso<\/i> to Facebook, from Maidei <\/i>to MySpace.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
While writers can exploit new tools and maintain their stake in the public discourse, visibility does not always translate to profitability, understandably to the demoralisation of our foremost artists.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
I keep insisting with a heavy heart that Zimbabwe risks literacy without literature as our emphasis shifts from digging to plowing.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
One has to give it up to Keen for his brilliant dissection of the deep end of Silicon Valley but his arrogant, polemical approach weakens his argument more than it aids it.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
For him, the digital revolution spells the convergence of ignorance, bad taste and mob rule. <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
His preoccupation with amplifying the downside makes his book a rather misanthropic and subjective caricature instead of the jam-packed trove his book could have easily become, considering his useful research.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
While one can concur with most of his arguments, he pitches his argument in high culture mode and alienates most of his audience.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
He carelessly peddles the idea that unless one is a functionary of the cultural elite, they are not entitled to express themselves.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
Ironically, such a position neither protects nor promotes culture but makes it parochial and static. <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
We do need a hedge around culture. It springs wild and free. Class will outlive crass.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
He juxtaposes his now obsolete Audiocafe.com digital to YouTube and bemoans the latter\u2019s departure from his own vision.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
Whereas he wanted classics and hippies (his personal taste) playing out from every \u201corifice,\u201d new technology enables anyone access and outlet.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
As the infinite replication of Bachs, Chopins and Mozarts, fresh soundbites fine-tuned to the concerns and tastes of their time are streaming in.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
Instead of the West dumping down taste to the Rest, we are empowered to speak back and to exchange our own stories.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
While mediocrity abounds in ubiquity on the Internet, gems are not altogether absent. Teen heartthrob Justin Bieber (of whom I am no fan) was discovered on a file-sharing site only to break into international acclaim.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
The dynamic is that while the Internet is inundate with mediocrity, genius is bound to stand out. It is up to users to separate grain from hay sheaves, a skill universally available.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
However, Keen is not altogether beside the point. Transplanting his reservations to the local setting, I have similar revulsion to the torrent of mediocre, lyrically inept and often obscene urban contemporary music which threatens to crowd out polished and mature content.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
What used to be an underground culture has been transformed into a household phenomenon, complete with the propagation of drug abuse, sexual immorality and spiritual ambiguity.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
Music critic Fred Zindi has castigated artists such as Soul Jah Love, Lady Squanda, Seh Calaz and Guspy Warrior for assaulting culture and promoting \u201cslackness.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
While the popularity of this movement (at home championing \u201cchamba,\u201d \u201cbronco\u201d and vulgarity behind the smoke-screen of ghetto interest) cannot be gainsaid, conscious culture is threatened by this banality bad taste and mob rule.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
Yet it would be disingenuous to incriminate the chemistry between the Internet and \u201c263 urban culture\u201d with a generic brush, unless one has to ignore stories of perseverance, transformation, maturity and positive influence such as Jah Prayzah, Tocky Vibes and Sabastian Magacha within the terrain.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
Couching deeper into his extremist diction, Keen employs crude, eugenic metaphors for his polemic, caricaturing the unprofessional majority as monkeys.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cFor today\u2019s amateur monkeys can use their networked computers to publish everything from uninformed political commentary, to unseemly home videos, to embarrassingly amateurish music, to unreadable poems, reviews, essays and novels,\u201d protests Keen.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
Again, one sees reason in Keen\u2019s reservations but is bound to be put off by his condescending posture. <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
Keen incriminates blogosphere of mindless narcissism. \u201cAt the heart of this infinite monkey experiment in self-publishing is the Internet diary, the ubiquitous blog,\u201d he vilifies.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cBlogging has become such a mania that a new blog is being created every second of every minute of every hour of every day. We are blogging with monkeylike shamelessness about our private lives, our sex lives, our dream lives, our lack of lives\u2026<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cAt the time of writing there are fifty-three million blogs on the Internet, and this number is doubling every six months. In the time you took to read this paragraphs, ten new blogs were launched,\u201d Keen protests.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
Notwithstanding my objection to Keen\u2019s supremacist posturing, I find his observations a welcome intervention against the mindless assault on culture which our generation has unreservedly embraced as development.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
One of the soft targets of \u201cThe Cult of the Amateur,\u201d Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger acknowledges the validity of Keen\u2019s points but questions his impassioned presentation. <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cThe book is provocative, but its argument is unfortunately weakened by the fact that Keen is so over-the-top and presents more of a caricature of a position than carefully reasoned discourse,\u201d Sanger points out.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0\u201cThe Cult of the Amateur\u201d is, on the whole, a pertinent speed trap for our web-captive culture.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Add caption Book: The Cult of the Amateur\u00a0 Author: Andrew Keen Publisher: Currency (2007) The digitally enabled democratisation of information and creative content has been widely lauded as progressive.\u00a0 Most current discussions loosely converge around such catch-phrases as Web 2.0 revolution, ICTs and digitisation. One is either in the loop or finding their way in. To be outside is to be branded a laggard as the cosmic ferment substitutes citizens with netizens. The democratic merits of the revolution are seldom in question. For most, it is the high point of democracy as Web 2.0 protocols level the arena and empower netizens to acquire, deliberate and share information and opinion. Outside the civic domain, web-based platforms have revolutionised the reception of creative content. Access to content, from classics to contemporaries, has been vastly enhanced. Artists and writers command new podiums for uninhibited self-expression (or is it pedestals for inflated self-exhibition?) But not everyone is impressed. The reactionaries, though a wafer-thin minority, range from the laggards and the indifferent to the hostile. Of the furthermost category, Andrew Keen has emerged as a spokesperson, casting himself into an Ardonite firebrand, complete with a quiver of scathing anti-Web 2.0 polemics. In \u201cThe Cult of the Amateur,\u201d Keen trash talks the Web 2.0 revolution and incriminates it for destroying culture, popularising mediocrity and bleeding the economy. Keen insists from the outset that he is not punching above his weight, having dabbled with Internet start-ups, including the now obsolete Audiocafe.com, as a Silicon Valley entrepreneur himself. The fallout point, his backsliding from an insider to a reactionary, was occasioned by what he perceives to the web-based transformation of culture into a dissonant racket. Keen claims that mediocrity and amateurism have become the new normal as anyone with an opinion can take to blogosphere, YouTube, MySpace or Wikipedia (Facebook now leads the pack) without commitment to quality and authenticity. He questions the wisdom (or lack of it) of a web-captive generation that has blindly thrown its weight behind a culture which encourages plagiarism and piracy as well as crippling tradition media and creative institutions. Locally, the implications are precipitate. Around half a year ago, Literature Today posted an instalment, \u201cZimbabwean literature operating at zero profitability,\u201d which I hoped would jolt stakeholders across the book value chain to action. \u00a0 Veteran writer Aaron Chiundura Moyo, indicated that he was capping his pen after the publication of his next book, citing measly royalties. Moyo revealed that he has earned less than $400 from his 14 books between 2000 and 2014. Few months later, highly regarded Shona novelist Ignatius Mabasa intimated that he was job-hunting. Mabasa had left his day job to concentrate on writing and publishing, only to reckon with a reality check in the face of proliferate copyright infringement.\u00a0 While poor sales are not so much a result of electronic duplication as they are of street vending, one may argue that the biggest challenge threatening the sustainability of our literary sector is the digital migration of readers \u2013 from Feso to Facebook, from Maidei to MySpace. While writers can exploit new tools and maintain their stake in the public discourse, visibility does not always translate to profitability, understandably to the demoralisation of our foremost artists. I keep insisting with a heavy heart that Zimbabwe risks literacy without literature as our emphasis shifts from digging to plowing. One has to give it up to Keen for his brilliant dissection of the deep end of Silicon Valley but his arrogant, polemical approach weakens his argument more than it aids it. For him, the digital revolution spells the convergence of ignorance, bad taste and mob rule. His preoccupation with amplifying the downside makes his book a rather misanthropic and subjective caricature instead of the jam-packed trove his book could have easily become, considering his useful research. While one can concur with most of his arguments, he pitches his argument in high culture mode and alienates most of his audience. He carelessly peddles the idea that unless one is a functionary of the cultural elite, they are not entitled to express themselves. Ironically, such a position neither protects nor promotes culture but makes it parochial and static. We do need a hedge around culture. It springs wild and free. Class will outlive crass. He juxtaposes his now obsolete Audiocafe.com digital to YouTube and bemoans the latter\u2019s departure from his own vision. Whereas he wanted classics and hippies (his personal taste) playing out from every \u201corifice,\u201d new technology enables anyone access and outlet. As the infinite replication of Bachs, Chopins and Mozarts, fresh soundbites fine-tuned to the concerns and tastes of their time are streaming in. Instead of the West dumping down taste to the Rest, we are empowered to speak back and to exchange our own stories. While mediocrity abounds in ubiquity on the Internet, gems are not altogether absent. Teen heartthrob Justin Bieber (of whom I am no fan) was discovered on a file-sharing site only to break into international acclaim. The dynamic is that while the Internet is inundate with mediocrity, genius is bound to stand out. It is up to users to separate grain from hay sheaves, a skill universally available. However, Keen is not altogether beside the point. Transplanting his reservations to the local setting, I have similar revulsion to the torrent of mediocre, lyrically inept and often obscene urban contemporary music which threatens to crowd out polished and mature content. What used to be an underground culture has been transformed into a household phenomenon, complete with the propagation of drug abuse, sexual immorality and spiritual ambiguity. Music critic Fred Zindi has castigated artists such as Soul Jah Love, Lady Squanda, Seh Calaz and Guspy Warrior for assaulting culture and promoting \u201cslackness.\u201d While the popularity of this movement (at home championing \u201cchamba,\u201d \u201cbronco\u201d and vulgarity behind the smoke-screen of ghetto interest) cannot be gainsaid, conscious culture is threatened by this banality bad taste and mob rule. Yet it would be disingenuous to incriminate the chemistry between the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-tech"],"yoast_head":"\nMob 2.0 \u2013 Internet, Culture and the Economy | Blockspace<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blockspaceballads.com\/?p=480\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mob 2.0 \u2013 Internet, Culture and the Economy | Blockspace\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Add caption Book: The Cult of the Amateur\u00a0 Author: Andrew Keen Publisher: Currency (2007) The digitally enabled democratisation of information and creative content has been widely lauded as progressive.\u00a0 Most current discussions loosely converge around such catch-phrases as Web 2.0 revolution, ICTs and digitisation. One is either in the loop or finding their way in. To be outside is to be branded a laggard as the cosmic ferment substitutes citizens with netizens. The democratic merits of the revolution are seldom in question. For most, it is the high point of democracy as Web 2.0 protocols level the arena and empower netizens to acquire, deliberate and share information and opinion. Outside the civic domain, web-based platforms have revolutionised the reception of creative content. Access to content, from classics to contemporaries, has been vastly enhanced. Artists and writers command new podiums for uninhibited self-expression (or is it pedestals for inflated self-exhibition?) But not everyone is impressed. The reactionaries, though a wafer-thin minority, range from the laggards and the indifferent to the hostile. Of the furthermost category, Andrew Keen has emerged as a spokesperson, casting himself into an Ardonite firebrand, complete with a quiver of scathing anti-Web 2.0 polemics. In \u201cThe Cult of the Amateur,\u201d Keen trash talks the Web 2.0 revolution and incriminates it for destroying culture, popularising mediocrity and bleeding the economy. Keen insists from the outset that he is not punching above his weight, having dabbled with Internet start-ups, including the now obsolete Audiocafe.com, as a Silicon Valley entrepreneur himself. The fallout point, his backsliding from an insider to a reactionary, was occasioned by what he perceives to the web-based transformation of culture into a dissonant racket. Keen claims that mediocrity and amateurism have become the new normal as anyone with an opinion can take to blogosphere, YouTube, MySpace or Wikipedia (Facebook now leads the pack) without commitment to quality and authenticity. He questions the wisdom (or lack of it) of a web-captive generation that has blindly thrown its weight behind a culture which encourages plagiarism and piracy as well as crippling tradition media and creative institutions. Locally, the implications are precipitate. Around half a year ago, Literature Today posted an instalment, \u201cZimbabwean literature operating at zero profitability,\u201d which I hoped would jolt stakeholders across the book value chain to action. \u00a0 Veteran writer Aaron Chiundura Moyo, indicated that he was capping his pen after the publication of his next book, citing measly royalties. Moyo revealed that he has earned less than $400 from his 14 books between 2000 and 2014. Few months later, highly regarded Shona novelist Ignatius Mabasa intimated that he was job-hunting. Mabasa had left his day job to concentrate on writing and publishing, only to reckon with a reality check in the face of proliferate copyright infringement.\u00a0 While poor sales are not so much a result of electronic duplication as they are of street vending, one may argue that the biggest challenge threatening the sustainability of our literary sector is the digital migration of readers \u2013 from Feso to Facebook, from Maidei to MySpace. While writers can exploit new tools and maintain their stake in the public discourse, visibility does not always translate to profitability, understandably to the demoralisation of our foremost artists. I keep insisting with a heavy heart that Zimbabwe risks literacy without literature as our emphasis shifts from digging to plowing. One has to give it up to Keen for his brilliant dissection of the deep end of Silicon Valley but his arrogant, polemical approach weakens his argument more than it aids it. For him, the digital revolution spells the convergence of ignorance, bad taste and mob rule. His preoccupation with amplifying the downside makes his book a rather misanthropic and subjective caricature instead of the jam-packed trove his book could have easily become, considering his useful research. While one can concur with most of his arguments, he pitches his argument in high culture mode and alienates most of his audience. He carelessly peddles the idea that unless one is a functionary of the cultural elite, they are not entitled to express themselves. Ironically, such a position neither protects nor promotes culture but makes it parochial and static. We do need a hedge around culture. It springs wild and free. Class will outlive crass. He juxtaposes his now obsolete Audiocafe.com digital to YouTube and bemoans the latter\u2019s departure from his own vision. Whereas he wanted classics and hippies (his personal taste) playing out from every \u201corifice,\u201d new technology enables anyone access and outlet. As the infinite replication of Bachs, Chopins and Mozarts, fresh soundbites fine-tuned to the concerns and tastes of their time are streaming in. Instead of the West dumping down taste to the Rest, we are empowered to speak back and to exchange our own stories. While mediocrity abounds in ubiquity on the Internet, gems are not altogether absent. Teen heartthrob Justin Bieber (of whom I am no fan) was discovered on a file-sharing site only to break into international acclaim. The dynamic is that while the Internet is inundate with mediocrity, genius is bound to stand out. It is up to users to separate grain from hay sheaves, a skill universally available. However, Keen is not altogether beside the point. Transplanting his reservations to the local setting, I have similar revulsion to the torrent of mediocre, lyrically inept and often obscene urban contemporary music which threatens to crowd out polished and mature content. What used to be an underground culture has been transformed into a household phenomenon, complete with the propagation of drug abuse, sexual immorality and spiritual ambiguity. Music critic Fred Zindi has castigated artists such as Soul Jah Love, Lady Squanda, Seh Calaz and Guspy Warrior for assaulting culture and promoting \u201cslackness.\u201d While the popularity of this movement (at home championing \u201cchamba,\u201d \u201cbronco\u201d and vulgarity behind the smoke-screen of ghetto interest) cannot be gainsaid, conscious culture is threatened by this banality bad taste and mob rule. Yet it would be disingenuous to incriminate the chemistry between the\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blockspaceballads.com\/?p=480\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Blockspace\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-03-12T07:27:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-10-26T07:49:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.cascadetoconversation.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/Cult-of-the-Amateur.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"hardsouth\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"hardsouth\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" 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\/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Mob 2.0 \u2013 Internet, Culture and the Economy | Blockspace","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/blockspaceballads.com\/?p=480","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Mob 2.0 \u2013 Internet, Culture and the Economy | Blockspace","og_description":"Add caption Book: The Cult of the Amateur\u00a0 Author: Andrew Keen Publisher: Currency (2007) The digitally enabled democratisation of information and creative content has been widely lauded as progressive.\u00a0 Most current discussions loosely converge around such catch-phrases as Web 2.0 revolution, ICTs and digitisation. One is either in the loop or finding their way in. To be outside is to be branded a laggard as the cosmic ferment substitutes citizens with netizens. The democratic merits of the revolution are seldom in question. For most, it is the high point of democracy as Web 2.0 protocols level the arena and empower netizens to acquire, deliberate and share information and opinion. Outside the civic domain, web-based platforms have revolutionised the reception of creative content. Access to content, from classics to contemporaries, has been vastly enhanced. Artists and writers command new podiums for uninhibited self-expression (or is it pedestals for inflated self-exhibition?) But not everyone is impressed. The reactionaries, though a wafer-thin minority, range from the laggards and the indifferent to the hostile. Of the furthermost category, Andrew Keen has emerged as a spokesperson, casting himself into an Ardonite firebrand, complete with a quiver of scathing anti-Web 2.0 polemics. In \u201cThe Cult of the Amateur,\u201d Keen trash talks the Web 2.0 revolution and incriminates it for destroying culture, popularising mediocrity and bleeding the economy. Keen insists from the outset that he is not punching above his weight, having dabbled with Internet start-ups, including the now obsolete Audiocafe.com, as a Silicon Valley entrepreneur himself. The fallout point, his backsliding from an insider to a reactionary, was occasioned by what he perceives to the web-based transformation of culture into a dissonant racket. Keen claims that mediocrity and amateurism have become the new normal as anyone with an opinion can take to blogosphere, YouTube, MySpace or Wikipedia (Facebook now leads the pack) without commitment to quality and authenticity. He questions the wisdom (or lack of it) of a web-captive generation that has blindly thrown its weight behind a culture which encourages plagiarism and piracy as well as crippling tradition media and creative institutions. Locally, the implications are precipitate. Around half a year ago, Literature Today posted an instalment, \u201cZimbabwean literature operating at zero profitability,\u201d which I hoped would jolt stakeholders across the book value chain to action. \u00a0 Veteran writer Aaron Chiundura Moyo, indicated that he was capping his pen after the publication of his next book, citing measly royalties. Moyo revealed that he has earned less than $400 from his 14 books between 2000 and 2014. Few months later, highly regarded Shona novelist Ignatius Mabasa intimated that he was job-hunting. Mabasa had left his day job to concentrate on writing and publishing, only to reckon with a reality check in the face of proliferate copyright infringement.\u00a0 While poor sales are not so much a result of electronic duplication as they are of street vending, one may argue that the biggest challenge threatening the sustainability of our literary sector is the digital migration of readers \u2013 from Feso to Facebook, from Maidei to MySpace. While writers can exploit new tools and maintain their stake in the public discourse, visibility does not always translate to profitability, understandably to the demoralisation of our foremost artists. I keep insisting with a heavy heart that Zimbabwe risks literacy without literature as our emphasis shifts from digging to plowing. One has to give it up to Keen for his brilliant dissection of the deep end of Silicon Valley but his arrogant, polemical approach weakens his argument more than it aids it. For him, the digital revolution spells the convergence of ignorance, bad taste and mob rule. His preoccupation with amplifying the downside makes his book a rather misanthropic and subjective caricature instead of the jam-packed trove his book could have easily become, considering his useful research. While one can concur with most of his arguments, he pitches his argument in high culture mode and alienates most of his audience. He carelessly peddles the idea that unless one is a functionary of the cultural elite, they are not entitled to express themselves. Ironically, such a position neither protects nor promotes culture but makes it parochial and static. We do need a hedge around culture. It springs wild and free. Class will outlive crass. He juxtaposes his now obsolete Audiocafe.com digital to YouTube and bemoans the latter\u2019s departure from his own vision. Whereas he wanted classics and hippies (his personal taste) playing out from every \u201corifice,\u201d new technology enables anyone access and outlet. As the infinite replication of Bachs, Chopins and Mozarts, fresh soundbites fine-tuned to the concerns and tastes of their time are streaming in. Instead of the West dumping down taste to the Rest, we are empowered to speak back and to exchange our own stories. While mediocrity abounds in ubiquity on the Internet, gems are not altogether absent. Teen heartthrob Justin Bieber (of whom I am no fan) was discovered on a file-sharing site only to break into international acclaim. The dynamic is that while the Internet is inundate with mediocrity, genius is bound to stand out. It is up to users to separate grain from hay sheaves, a skill universally available. However, Keen is not altogether beside the point. Transplanting his reservations to the local setting, I have similar revulsion to the torrent of mediocre, lyrically inept and often obscene urban contemporary music which threatens to crowd out polished and mature content. What used to be an underground culture has been transformed into a household phenomenon, complete with the propagation of drug abuse, sexual immorality and spiritual ambiguity. Music critic Fred Zindi has castigated artists such as Soul Jah Love, Lady Squanda, Seh Calaz and Guspy Warrior for assaulting culture and promoting \u201cslackness.\u201d While the popularity of this movement (at home championing \u201cchamba,\u201d \u201cbronco\u201d and vulgarity behind the smoke-screen of ghetto interest) cannot be gainsaid, conscious culture is threatened by this banality bad taste and mob rule. Yet it would be disingenuous to incriminate the chemistry between the","og_url":"https:\/\/blockspaceballads.com\/?p=480","og_site_name":"Blockspace","article_published_time":"2015-03-12T07:27:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-10-26T07:49:21+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.cascadetoconversation.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/Cult-of-the-Amateur.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"hardsouth","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"hardsouth","Est. reading time":"7 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/blockspaceballads.com\/?p=480#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blockspaceballads.com\/?p=480"},"author":{"name":"hardsouth","@id":"https:\/\/blockspaceballads.com\/#\/schema\/person\/a336a678f28eacb341ce63c6b84b17d0"},"headline":"Mob 2.0 \u2013 Internet, Culture and the 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