Whether you like it or not it is a thriving economy for bitcoins and pure example of the power of it. bitcoin economy will expand outside of it, don't worry.
On the down low I have a few issues with silk road security wise, some keymaster holds the database and codes in their hand, and due to the nature of the goods that power in 1 persons hand is not good. + Tor is NOT anonymous and you can easily sniff a exit node, every security/goverment agency either has exit nodes black listed and without a doubt it's filled with FBI and special Black Op's people doing all sorts a nasty shit.
Um... dude. The Silk Road is a hidden service. No exit nodes are involved. Also, you can encrypt your info with the sellers public key.