though we’re only supposed to gripe

Usually you’re only considered a serious intellectual if you’re griping or bitching about something, or finding exploitation hidden somewhere in the vicinity, or denouncing the gullibility and fallibility of others. That’s the tone I get really sick of, and it feeds on itself and becomes an end in itself, so that only one-upping grouches and vain scenesters are left in plain sight.

So, let me just say briefly that I’m quite happy to be living in 2011 rather than even in 1981, and there’s one specific reason I have in mind– the quick availability of information. It could be a royal pain to get information pre-internet. Now you can usually find things out very quickly. I remember as recently as December 1992, my brother and I had to call the Iowa City Public Library when we were trying to pick up the lost story of the 1991 Soviet coup plotters (the story of their legal process had fallen completely out of the U.S. media). We were simply curious, and had to rely on the nice people at the library help desk to find out for us what was going on. Today, you could figure out a story like that by yourself with a few seconds on Google and a bit of cross-checking to make sure you weren’t getting bogus information on the first try. Heck, Wikipedia would probably already have it right.

You can also get the books you need very quickly, no matter from what country or how long out of print. True, if you’re a graduate student you may be too poor to get each and every one you want, but students have been legendarily poor since the Middle Ages, and they’ll find ways around it (I was there too, not long ago).

I just wanted to express pleasure about something, that’s all.