Against Literacy

How Literacy Empowers the Free Market to Destroy Literature

Another century of readers--and spirit itself will stink. Every one being allowed to learn to read, ruineth in the long run not only writing but also thinking.

-Zarathustra

Literacy was once a rare skill, cultivated by those with the patience and intellect to engage with profound ideas. It belonged to scholars, theologians, and thinkers who shaped civilizations through careful study and disciplined thought. The expansion of literacy should have elevated culture, but instead, it has debased it.

With the rise of mass literacy, the market for books has grown, but it has grown in the wrong direction. Publishers no longer cater to those seeking wisdom or artistic depth. Instead, they pander to the tastes of an audience that reads not to understand but to be entertained, validated, or distracted. The book has become a product, shaped by the same market forces that dictate the production of fast food and reality television.

In an age where nearly everyone can read, few read well. Thoughtful engagement has been replaced by speed and convenience. Books are consumed like disposable content, skimmed rather than studied. Mediocre writers, once relegated to obscurity, now flood the literary world with works that demand nothing of their readers and contribute nothing to the intellectual landscape.

The consequences are dire. Great voices are lost in the noise. The wisdom of the past is drowned beneath an ocean of forgettable prose. Serious literature is replaced with mass-market drivel, and civilization suffers for it. The expansion of literacy has not been a triumph of enlightenment but an engine of mediocrity.

II. The Problem with an Expanding Literary Market

In a world where anyone can publish a book, literature has become a landfill where the few diamonds are buried under mountains of garbage.

The book market was once small, sustained by those who read with purpose. Literacy was a gateway to higher thought, demanding discipline, patience, and a willingness to engage with complex ideas. But as literacy spread, the market changed. Publishers, once beholden to intellectual rigor, became slaves to mass consumption. The goal was no longer to produce great books, but to sell as many as possible.

This shift rewarded the lowest common denominator. Books ceased to be works of art or vessels of wisdom; they became products designed for easy digestion. The explosion of commercial publishing, aided by digital platforms, ensured that anyone with a keyboard could flood the market with content. The result is a literary landscape dominated by formulaic thrillers, shallow self-help guides, and ideological propaganda.

The consequences are devastating. Literary excellence is no longer incentivized. Great writers must either compromise to survive or risk being drowned out entirely. Popularity dictates value, and accessibility trumps depth. The books that succeed are those that require the least from their readers—books that flatter, entertain, or provide a quick emotional fix.

Meanwhile, the intellectual heritage of the past is ignored. The literary canon, once the foundation of a cultured mind, is dismissed as elitist, outdated, or oppressive. Knowledge is replaced with opinion, wisdom with affirmation. The expansion of literacy, rather than creating a more enlightened society, has filled the world with noise, making it harder than ever to hear voices that truly matter.

III. The Tyranny of the Majority in Literature

Popular taste is an oxymoron—what the masses embrace is almost always what deserves to be forgotten.

Literature once belonged to the few. Not by force, but by nature. The best minds sought out the best books, and writers strove to meet the demands of discerning readers. The literary world was shaped by those who valued depth over ease, complexity over convenience. Now, it is ruled by the whims of the majority—a majority that neither seeks nor rewards excellence.

Mass literacy did not elevate culture. It democratized taste, allowing popularity to replace merit as the standard of value. Today’s bestsellers are not judged by their insight, prose, or artistic achievement but by their ability to appeal to the largest number of readers. The consequence is a literary ecosystem where mediocrity flourishes while brilliance is ignored.

This is not a matter of personal preference but of structural decay. The publishing industry, bound to market forces, cannot afford to prioritize excellence. Publishers invest in what sells, and what sells is what requires the least effort to consume. Thoughtful literature, demanding patience and engagement, struggles to compete against works designed to provide immediate gratification.

In such a system, the greatest minds are silenced, not by censorship but by irrelevance. The few who still write with ambition find themselves buried beneath an avalanche of forgettable content. And the readers who might seek them out? They are lost in a sea of books designed not to challenge them, but to comfort, distract, and confirm whatever they already believe.

IV. How Mass Literacy Fosters Intellectual Laziness

The illusion of literacy has created a society where people think reading anything makes them informed, no matter how mindless the content.

When everyone reads, few read well. Literacy was once a discipline, an art requiring patience, concentration, and a willingness to wrestle with difficult ideas. Now, it is a passive act—a means of consumption rather than engagement. The modern reader does not seek wisdom but distraction, and the literary marketplace obliges.

Mass literacy has not produced a society of deep thinkers. It has produced a society of skimmers, of individuals who absorb headlines, half-read articles, and digest books in the same way they scroll through social media. Attention spans have collapsed. The ability to engage with long, complex arguments has eroded. The reader of today does not wish to be challenged—he wishes to be entertained, validated, and reassured.

This shift has consequences beyond literature. A public that does not read seriously cannot think seriously. Nuance is abandoned in favor of slogans. Arguments are reduced to soundbites. Political discourse collapses into hysteria and moral grandstanding. The intellectual laziness fostered by mass literacy does not merely produce bad books—it produces a society incapable of meaningful thought.

Worse still, the culture of reading as entertainment creates an illusion of intelligence. A man who has read hundreds of books, if they are all shallow and self-affirming, is no wiser than one who has read none. True literacy is not about quantity but quality—about the ability to engage, question, and grow. Without that, reading is not a path to enlightenment but a tool for mass complacency.

V. The Flood of Mediocre Writers

When everyone believes they have a story worth telling, we end up with an endless sea of books where none are worth reading.

Once, the barriers to authorship ensured that only those with skill, discipline, and vision could shape the literary landscape. Writing was a craft, requiring years of refinement. Books were rare, and those that endured did so because they were worth reading. Today, anyone can be a writer, and nearly everyone is.

Mass literacy has not only increased the number of readers but has unleashed a flood of writers who have nothing to say yet demand to be heard. Self-publishing platforms, online blogs, and vanity presses have removed all obstacles to publication. While this has given some talented voices an opportunity, it has overwhelmingly led to an inundation of low-quality work. The sheer volume of books now available ensures that the best are buried beneath an avalanche of mediocrity.

The market rewards speed over depth. Writers are encouraged to churn out content, following trends rather than crafting ideas worth preserving. The result is a literary culture obsessed with instant gratification—serialized fiction, formulaic storytelling, and self-help books that recycle the same empty platitudes.

Genius does not thrive in a system that values output over excellence. The modern writer, if he wishes to succeed, must either conform to mass taste or accept irrelevance. The few who resist, those who write not for sales but for truth, are drowned out before they can be heard. Mass literacy did not create a world rich in literature—it created a world where great literature is nearly impossible to find.

VI. Defending Literary Excellence in a Culture of Mass Reading

Literary excellence is an endangered species, and mass literacy is the ecological disaster that wiped it out.

If mass literacy has degraded literature, the solution is not to restrict reading but to restore literary standards. The problem is not that too many people can read, but that too few know how to read well. A culture that values depth must reject the flood of mediocrity and demand excellence from both its writers and its readers.

Serious literature cannot compete on equal footing with disposable entertainment. It requires protection—not through censorship, but through curation. The literary canon must be defended, not dismissed as outdated or elitist. Schools must teach students how to engage with great works rather than inundate them with contemporary fluff. Patronage must return, ensuring that writers who reject mass-market trends can survive without sacrificing integrity.

Readers must also bear responsibility. The impulse toward easy reading must be resisted. Shallow books must be abandoned in favor of those that challenge, refine, and elevate the mind. The ability to read is wasted on those who refuse to think. A literate society that does not engage with serious ideas is no better than an illiterate one.

Mass literacy has not led to cultural enlightenment—it has led to a marketplace where great voices are drowned out. If literature is to have a future, it must be safeguarded from the forces that threaten it. This requires a shift, not in who reads, but in what they read. Without that, civilization will continue its slow descent into a world where everyone is literate, yet no one is wise.

VII. Terminus

A literate society that cannot think is no better than an illiterate one—it’s just louder.

Mass literacy was once heralded as a triumph of civilization, a means of spreading knowledge and elevating human thought. Yet its consequences have been far from ideal. Instead of fostering wisdom, it has flooded the literary world with mediocrity. Instead of sharpening minds, it has dulled them with passive consumption. Instead of preserving great ideas, it has drowned them beneath a sea of forgettable prose.

Literature was never meant to be a mass-market commodity. The greatest works of history were born from discipline, intellect, and a desire to illuminate the human condition. But when the ability to read is granted to all, and the market caters to the lowest common denominator, those works become nearly impossible to sustain. The modern reader does not seek truth—he seeks ease. And so the books that flourish are not those that demand engagement, but those that require nothing at all.

If literature is to be restored, it must be protected from the forces that now dominate it. Readers must reclaim their role as seekers of wisdom rather than passive consumers of content. Writers must resist the temptation to conform to mass-market expectations. And the culture at large must recognize that not all books are worth reading, nor all voices worth amplifying.

A literate society is not necessarily an enlightened one. True literacy is not about the ability to read, but the ability to think. Without that distinction, civilization will continue its descent—not into ignorance, but into something far worse: a world where everyone reads, yet nothing of value is ever written.