As I approached my fiftieth birthday, I had become more and more enraged and mystified by the idiot decisions of my countrymen. And then I had come suddenly to pity them, for I understood how innocent and natural it was for them to behave so abominably, and with such abominable results: They were doing their best to live like people invented in story books. This was the reason Americans shot each other so often: It was a convenient literary device for ending short stories and books.

We would be horrified if the government ordered agents into libraries to burn books. We should be equally horrified when the government seeks to erase public documents from electronic libraries. If hypertext is to carry out its traditions, then what is published must remain so. Erasure will make no flame and smoke, but the stench of book-burning will remain.

Despite the broad appeal of an open future, some people will oppose it. The power-hungry, the intolerant idealists, and a handful of sheer people-haters will find the prospect of freedom and diversity repugnant. The question is, will they shape public policy?