Opinion

Columnist October 25, 2026 — 4:30pm

October 25, 2026 — 4:30pm

In his new history of Wikipedia, journalist Richard Cooke writes that we may be witnessing the “beginning of the end of the encyclopaedic age”. This was an age marked not only by a belief in the importance of knowledge, but in its civilising function. If we could just assemble enough facts and give them to enough people, we could create a better society.

Two weeks ago, Cooke offered this bleak verdict to Crikey : “Wikipedia is the closest thing that’s ever existed to that universal encyclopaedia, and its effect on making things like public discourse more reasonable or more reason-driven is undetectable.”

Don’t assume the attack on Helen Haines will change anything. That’s the quickest way to ensure it doesn’t. Marija Ercegovac

I helped launch that book last week, two days after Helen Haines was brutally attacked.…