On the lost and destroyed Detroit

As a techno and cyberpunk fan, I owe a lot of my education to Detroit. A city which could as well be a warzone. The darkness comes at an immeasurable price in human suffering, decay of civilization, and a continuing economic debacle that locks innocent people in.

The nastiest picture of Detroit I ever saw was one of a bygone public library. Its wall had cracked, to let morning sun shine on vacant shelves, with paper and other detritus lying on the floors, graffiti on the walls -- yet most of the books still lay on the shelves. Nobody really minded the books at all. They weren't even worth stealing, only occasional vandalism, and not much evenso.

That's the worst kind of mockery of civilization and education I've ever seen. Do have the common fucking courtesy to burn the books, if you have to. They did it with Alexandria.

But to disgrace a library without even understanding the value of what was there... That's just banal, trite, and utterly hopeless...