I believe it is credited to Ben Franklin but, I'm sure, there have been many precursors over the ages. That is the FREE lending library. The free, lending library is the progenitor of the Internet as it provided information to anyone who could read and was in a position to visit a library. A lot of people just do not realize the impact of access to information. You no longer need take the word of your "lords and ladies", you can just go look it up and find out. You no longer have to be quiet with your ideas and opinions. You can publish them for anyone to read and think about.
While there are and have been very many great inventions in the world the two greatest have to have been the printing press (with movable type) and the lending library. Books were not longer the purview of the few rich and privileged but were available to all. I think the Internet will be the third great invention in this line at it brings freedom of information and freedom to think and decide for oneself what is right based on information and not propaganda.
Free access to information is a great light shining in the darkness of our world. How many evils have been committed in secret that could have been avoided had there been the light of documentation and access to information available to all?
But, free access to information implies the responsibility for us to make use of it. We can no longer turn our heads and say, "I didn't know". How can you not know now? It is all there at your fingertips. You just have to make the effort to open your eyes and look. Information is shining a light on the hidden places in this world but we have to open our eyes and look at them and then make sure everyone knows about the evils we see. The world is not perfect but it is much less perfect as long as so many evils can be done in secret. We all need to use the tools available to us to shine a light where once were only shadows.
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