I had won­dered about a loss of col­lec­tive won­der­ing in the back issues. Pete Holmes says it bet­ter than I ever could, start­ing at around the four minute mark:

Hav­ing Google on your phone is like hav­ing a drunk know-it-all in your pocket. There’s no time for mys­tery or won­der. You’re just like, “how do they make glass?” “Blarghe­largle­bahhrahhh!!!” And you know. But the time between not know­ing and know­ing is so brief that know­ing feels exactly like not know­ing, so life is meaningless.

Equally, though more prac­tially, thought-provoking are the results of Louis C.K.‘s exper­i­ment in bypass­ing the cor­po­rate middle-man. Another foray into media self-publishing proves again that the con­sumer, given a chance, is hon­est and will pay for a prod­uct. The media con­glom­er­ates would have artists believe that we are all out to steal their art and their earn­ings, but more and more of them are under­stand­ing that the real thieves are the enter­tain­ment houses them­selves. Occupy entertainment?