All your freedom is ours...

[sawyl]

Today's Graun featured a coruscating article by Tom Hodgkinson detailing the evils of Facebook and the neocon libertarian agenda of its owners. The piece concluded with a rousing call to reconnect with the real world:

...you may decide to send genius investor Thiel all your money, and certainly you'll be waiting impatiently for the public flotation of the unstoppable Facebook.

Or you might reflect that you don't really want to be part of this heavily-funded programme to create an arid global virtual republic, where your own self and your relationships with your friends are converted into commodites on sale to giant global brands. You may decide that you don't want to be part of this takeover bid for the world.

For my own part, I am going to retreat from the whole thing, remain as unplugged as possible, and spend the time I save by not going on Facebook doing something useful, such as reading books. Why would I want to waste my time on Facebook when I still haven't read Keats' Endymion? And when there are seeds to be sown in my own back yard? I don't want to retreat from nature, I want to reconnect with it.

Amen! Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go, for my copy of Endymion is sitting ready and waiting to be read...