Hi everyone. Well, I just finished How to Resist Amazon and Why by Danny Caine. Read it on my Kobo, of course. I wasn't going to read it on a Kindle, was I? Yeah, this is an excellent book and everybody owes it to themselves to read this. It gives you the bookseller perspective on all of this. And it's high time somebody wrote something like this. Let me just quote you a little part.
When it comes to Amazon, it seems like they want to build a replacement for the United States Postal Service. It seems like they don’t want to be the biggest online marketplace. Rather, they want to be the only online marketplace.
In The Atlantic, Franklin Foer concludes that Jeff Bezos assumes roles once reserved for the state. His company has become the shared national infrastructure. It shapes the future of the workplace with its robots. It will populate the skies with its drones.
Its website determines which industries thrive and which fall to the side. His investments in space travel may remake the heavens. The incapacity of the political system to ponder the problem of his power, let alone check it, guarantees his Long Now.
He is fixated on the distance because he knows it belongs to him. Is the fight to resist Amazon hopeless? I’m not actually sure, but I, for one, won’t go down without a fight.
Boy, do I understand those words.
After I posted my letter to Jeff Bezos on Twitter, someone replied to call me naive, saying that blacksmiths bemoaned the advent of Henry Ford’s Model T, [et cetera, et cetera]. I have two responses to this accusation.
First, I ask if Amazon actually represents progress. Good question. Does unprecedented corporate consolidation and power actually signify steps to a better future? The IBM computer was a revolutionary tool that enabled the democratization of human knowledge.
On the other hand, Amazon’s unchecked expansion in many ways threatens democracy. I mean, come on, they’re building their own shipping infrastructure, surveillance network, and court system. So before anyone accuses me of trying to stand in the way of progress, take a minute to consider what progress really is or can be. Do we want a future where billionaires by simple virtue of their riches are granted governing power?
My second thought is this. The blacksmith is good at his job. He serves his community. He has found a way to make a living with a useful skill. Who would expect the blacksmith to quietly endure a threat to his livelihood? Do we expect him not to protest the Model T? Do we automatically accept the Model T in all the beliefs of its problematic inventor?
Does Blacksmith ignore the dangerous implications of the Model T way of doing things? Even if he can’t win, who would ask the Blacksmith to be quiet? I may just be the owner of a small bookstore in the middle of the country trying to argue against the world’s richest man, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to quietly watch the world’s richest man relentlessly collect money, influence, and power.
Okay. Yeah, hear hear, and I second that. And as a lawyer and citizen of the United States, I thoroughly object to a person like Jeff Bezos even existing. Thank you. That is all I have to say. And to all you Amazon authors, I hope you’re listening and thinking about this. Thank you and see you, be seeing you. Be seeing you.
You can get the ebook from these retailers, including Amazon, if you insist.
You can also get it in print from my online bookstore and support indie bookstores.
PS: Apparently, neither Publishers Weekly nor Kirkus had anything to say about this book. And, apparently, no other author had the guts. Hmm ... ? :)
I wonder if it’ll make the Amazon Top 100! Ooh, ooh! :)
