Montag comes to learn that firefighter are rarely necessary because the public itself stopped reading of its own accord?

In Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, Guy Montag learns that the fireman as we know them today (the kind who fight fires) became unnecessary because the public stopped reading of its own accord. This is true. Instead of reading and being concerned with global events (such as the war that is raging throughout the entire background of the book) the public became more interested in being carefree and having fun. Although the novel is about censorship, it is not about government-inflicted censorship initially; the people bring it on themselves. Eventually, the public belief comes to be that books and the like are bad for society, and the new firemen, like Beatty (the kind who burn books) are necessary to prevent people from becoming unhappy. The idea is that books make people unhappy because they present a plethora of knowledge and opposing opinions.