I have no sympathy for Andrew Keen and his disdain for the cultural changes that came with the rise of "Web 2.0" and the destruction of all of the gatekeepers and other less-than-necessary intermediaries that long ago turned cancerous when they ceased to be useful elements of a community and became self-important seekers of domination and control.
The very "cult of the amateur" Keen attack and derides is the historical norm for all human cultures, "primitive" and "civilized" alike. What Keen fails to acknowledge is that even the so-called "experts" far too often are just making it up as they go, either because they are at the edge of their competency and have to make it up because there is no better way to employ what they can of their expertise or (far more common) they are actually incompetent and are masking that fact with bluster as they fake it until they make it.
The vast majority of artists, of all media, are amateurs. Very few ever got paid at all, and most of those that did literally or figuratively sang for their supper. The so-called "great writers", by and large, were amateurs and those that could be called "professional" were actually the same hacks that Keen disdains so much; Keen avoids acknowledging (for example) that much of what Shakespeare got paid to write he wrote on commission, and wrote for a popular audience no less crass and vulgar in sensibilities (and considerably more violent) than today. Friedrich Schiller was an amateur, no less skilled than Shakespeare or Goethe, and wrote when not practicing medicine. Beethoven had patrons, as did many of the great Renaissance artists; otherwise, no art would come, as they could not get paid as today's creatives do.
Keen also fails to acknowledge the then-burgeoning business in legitimate downloads for music, which would explode into all forms of media that one can read, watch or listen to on computers and mobile devices. This spread into the rise of Print On Demand (for the physical-only holdouts like myself) outlets such as Lulu and Smashwords, and as for the user-generated stuff like YouTube one need only look at FPSRussia to see how it can be a comfortable and pleasant way to make a living. (That man's income is easily mid-to-high five figures just from what YouTube shares with him in advertising income; he also sells his own swag and makes commercial appearances now, and he's not the biggest success story.)
Far from being the herald of the fall of Civilization, Keen's "cult of the amateur" is in reality the unfettering of a marketplace wherein all that want to participate may do so on their terms. This horror show that Keen calls "anarchy" is nothing of the sort; it is, in reality, the Adult Swim of life wherein busybody authoritarians have no sway anymore because their Big Daddy tendencies--noticing Keen's assumption of minor-like incompetency to make one's own decisions that authoritarians typically make; it's a running theme throughout his writing here--turn people off. He can't compete in a truly free market, and he resents it; this is his "sour grapes" reaction, and I take it as such.
The amateurs I follow have, over time, increased their competency and capacity for greater quality until they reach professional-grade work on a hobbyist's budget. From the other direction, professionals see what can be done on the cheap and have come in to show the amateurs how its done--witness Felicia Day's "The Guild", now on the Geek & Sundry channel at YouTube, or Chris Hardwick's "Nerdist" podcast--and the results are an increasing tide of quality as an increasing spread of amateurs take notice and raise their game accordingly.
The days of gatekeeper-corralled professionalist culture creation is done. We're now returning to a state where people develop their own talents when, where, and how they see fit; all things like YouTube and Lulu do is spread the possible audience from the hometown and surrounding county to the globe. As for the industrial culture giants, they too can and will adapt; Keen published this book in 2007, and one year later the first Iron Man movie--no doubt a "proper professional product"--hit screens and won over the world, ushering in the Marvel Movie Universe and marking Disney's big return to live-action blockbuster cinema. That trend continues to gain ground, as we see with Warner Brothers attempting to do the same thing with the D.C. Comics properties that they own starting with Man of Steel.
Keen should realize that (a) he's wrong, and (b) he's lost this fight forever now. Go home, Andy. We don't need your authoritarian approach to culture, and we don't want it.
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