Long-gone Revolutionaries - Whatever happened to cafés?

In an article in the Wall Street Journal, Michael Idov claims that coffeehouses have lost their revolutionary spirit in favor of politeness and silent blogging. Where hotheaded idealists once met to discuss political schemes and enter intellectual duals, customers now sit alone with their drinks and type on computers. Is this a bad thing? Moreover, have the revolutionaries really left?

Of course the revolutionaries of old have. Cafés are inarguably quieter than they once were, and one is hardly likely to eavesdrop on any assassination plots when walking into a coffee shop. Yet in Silicon Valley, at least (home to Cafe Venetia), one is sure to pass by rebels of a different kind. Here, entrepreneurs and technology gurus sit in cafés at their individual computers and engineer start-ups with never-before-seen products that have the potential to revolutionize not only the digital sphere but also how we live and communicate with one another. Café atmospheres have indeed shifted, but only with the times. Who's to say who the real revolutionaries are?