Google and the "capacity for audacity"

"Google's modus operandi is to step into a vacuum that used to be the function of the state. Think about Google Books as a cheap replacement for libraries, which should be connecting people to all that learning. Or consider the clumsy pseudo-diplomatic role Google played earlier this year in its showdown with China. We should have stopped believing the 'don't be evil' hype some years ago. Google has long asked to be treated as something special. But it's special in only one way: its capacity for audacity."—Siva Vaidhyanathan opining on the Google-Verizon net neutrality news of the day, over at MSNBC.com.