In my experience, Mr. Shirky’s writing has a consistent flavor to it: persuasively ineluctable, hip, au courant and friendly (but take no prisoners and don’t suffer fools gladly). In my experience, upon closer reflection, Mr. Shirky’s arguments are usually highly opinionated bits of“truthiness.” This piece, along with most of his writing reminds me of Nietzsche: “One sticks to an opinion because he prides himself on having come to it on his own, and another because he has taken great pains to learn it and is proud to have grasped it: and so both do so out of vanity.”