Encyclopedia vs. Wikipedia
Knowledge as Trash Talk
By: Charles Giuliano - May 13, 2016
Encyclopedia vs. Wikipedia
Age of the Enlightenment
Stunning accomplishment
Encyclopedia
Radical endeavor
Read aloud in salons
Ancien Regime
Anxious to know what
Denis Diderot and
Jean le Rond d'Alembert
Said of them
They whose heads
Would roll
Delighting
Sans-culottes
Pen is mightier than the sword
Voltaire said for those
Wise enough to listen
Power of knowledge
Freedom of speech
So precious
Easily squandered
Reduced to blather
Gossip as journalism
Libel and lies
Fox ersatz news
If it bleeds it leads
Populist entertainment
Scorn for truth
In the '50s Dad bought
Encyclopedia Britannica
Thought I would read
Cover to cover
Never did
Moldering in basement
Sad and neglected
No market value
Soon trashed
Triage of downsizing
Made obsolete
Everything on line
Bits and pieces
Crumbs of information
Wikipedia
Quick and easy
Mockery of
Lifelong learning
Decapitated
Decadent nerds
Snobs in powdered wigs
Simpering aristocracy
Collateral damage
Cultural revolutions
All news all day
Bombarded by
Late breaking headlines
Numbing redundancy
No time for
Critical analysis
Where are the
Philosophes
When we need them
Now more than ever
Wit and wisdom
A modest proposal
Devolved by
Vulgarity
Roiled masses
Believing what
They are told
Staggering fear of
The unknown
Ignorance as bliss
Trash talk
Noise not music
Social media
Spreading the word
To all who
Won't listen
Burn baby burn