Niall Ferguson: Without Books We Will Be Barbarians
It is not the road to serfdom that awaits—but the steep downward slope to the status of a peasant in ancient Egypt.
“WHAT RAY BRADBURY FAILED TO ANTICIPATE IS THAT HIS NATIVE AMERICA—AND INDEED THE WESTERN WORLD—MIGHT TURN AWAY FROM LITERACY VOLUNTARILY,” WRITES NIALL FERGUSON. (BFA VIA ALAMY)
He wanted above all . . . to shove a marshmallow on a stick in the furnace, while the flapping pigeon-winged books died on the porch and lawn of the house. While the books went up in sparkling whirls and blew away on a wind turned dark with burning.” —Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
It’s hard not to be impressed by Ray Bradbury’s prescience.