Libraries Then and Now
You might have heard of libraries. People used to go there to get books. Nowadays, they’re mainly used by homeless people to find some air conditioning—because actually taking care of those with the least in our society would be… Ewww. So cringe. The best, most caring, most ethical thing to do is leave them on the street and point at them when we drive by. (I believe I read that in a Maya Angelou book.)
As I recall from childhood, we would go to the library, pick out a book we wanted to read, check it out, and it was all free. If you returned the book by the due date, there was no cost. If you were late, there was a five cent per week fee—a nickel. For those of you under 30, a nickel was a little piece of metal you kept in your pocket and fiddled with all day, even though at some point in its life it had certainly been pressed against a naked elderly man’s ass. A nickel was worth 1/20th of a dollar—no matter where it had been.
Sharing Knowledge
Back when people wanted and read books, the library system worked great. It helped people get the books they needed and cost almost nothing. Then, when CDs and DVDs came along, libraries started carrying those too. This meant that no matter how poor you might be, you could get books and movies and information. You could even use a computer if you didn’t have one.
It was a system that also greatly reduced waste. If 100 people shared a book rather than each producing, buying, and discarding 100 copies, the Earth benefited. Who wants to knock down a forest so each of us can have our own copy of Lance Armstrong’s gripping tale of overcoming hardship? (Armstrong’s book taught young people how they can achieve anything with hard work and a bag of clean blood you pick up in a McDonald’s parking lot and inject into your veins with a Capri Sun straw.) But we didn’t each need our own copy—we could share one at the library.
A Library For Everything
So here’s the question: What if there were a library for all things?
Drills, vacuums, clothes, kids’ toys, picnic supplies, luggage, screwdrivers, those long poles with saws on the end for cutting high tree branches, weed whackers, extra dishes and bowls for hosting big dinners, dil—Well, maybe not dildos. You might wonder where those had been. (Certainly nowhere worse than that nickel in your pocket.)
You could check anything out of the library just like a book and return it in a few days or a week. You save a lot of money. We all create less waste. The spotted owls get to live. The butterflies stop turning brown. It’s all good! So what’s the problem? Why aren’t we doing this immediately?!
The Objections
“People would just steal that stuff!”
No, people wouldn’t steal things because then they couldn’t use the library again. Steal a weed whacker, and you lose out on a thousand other things you could have borrowed for free. Besides, the library could have your credit card on file and charge you for not returning items. It’s not hard. In fact, there’s already a type of business where they let you take off in one of their cars and just expect you’ll bring it back. It’s so INSANE. I believe it’s called a rent-ahl car coompanee. (I think I spelled that right.)
“But what if someone just kept returning everything late?”
The answer to this concern is common sense. The community would get together and staple that person’s ears to the lamp post in the middle of town. That goes without saying.
“But if all the stuff were at a library, it wouldn’t be mine!”
True, it would belong to the community. If you desperately need to know the power drill is yours at all times (you want to hold it and caress each night) — even though you use it once a month for three minutes — you might want to see a therapist. But don’t worry. In this wonderful new economy we’re building, mental healthcare would also be free.
Why Not Already?
“But if this were a good idea, why haven’t we done it yet? There must be a reason it sucks balls.”
The reason we haven’t done this is capitalism and consumerism. There’s a cultural understanding that everything has to be owned so we can talk about our stuff and buy anything we have even a passing thought about.
“What? There’s a device that can automatically pour water into my cat’s dish without me having to bend over at the waist? That needs to be mine… now.”
The real reason there’s no Library of Everything is that just the idea of it would undo the entirety of our capitalist indoctrination—the belief that you have to work your ass off to buy all the things. Most Americans go their whole lives either enjoying that reality or working toward it, even if they never get there.
But then once you can buy all the things, you aren’t any happier. If you’re happy, it’s because of things you didn’t buy, like your children. (Unless you bought your children, in which case… creepy.)
Dangerous Possibilities
A Library of Everything could spawn myriad other dangerous ideas. For example, what if there were a community garden that was actually a farm, and if you volunteered a little, you could feed your whole family for free? What if there were a Library of Healthcare and everyone could just… get some?
These idea would quickly cause the whole exploitative house of cards to fall!
Why It Must Be Stopped
And that is why we must stop the Everything Library from ever taking hold. Don’t let it happen. Vote with your wallet by buying lots of things you hardly use and keeping them to yourself. Don’t let anyone borrow them. That’s how it starts.
I want this. All of it. I also want a library as a third place where I can hang out and meet people in a non-competitive way in my community. Let's do it!
Excellent post. Just after my 5th birthday in 1957 my dad took me down to the local public lending library in the small village I grew up in the north west of England and got me my first library ticket. From that day he would often find me sitting on the floor in the children’s section with several books on the floor around me and one in my hands. To this day I read books and not digital screeds since I also enjoy the tactile sensation of holding a book, turning the pages, going back to reread passages and gaining a greater understanding of what I was reading. When my wife and I bought my current house 25 years ago in a new sub division about 30 miles west of Atlanta, I couldn’t help but notice that everyone had their own lawn tractor do I bought one. It would have been a much better and a more cost effective idea to buy one lawn tractor to be shared between five or six households. It would have been simple to set up a schedule for use and maintenance and, if necessary, to make the decision that the current tractor was past its shag by date and purchase a new one. That’s not socialism, it’s common bloody sense.