_______________________________ Von: James Bowery <jabow...@gmail.com>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Paracelsus whose motto was: "Let no man belong to another that can belong to himself." >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> James, I understand this as a typical statement of a renaissance mind. But: Paracelsus was not a Yeoman. He was driven by his convictions. The same could be said by Erasmus, Gutenberg, Luther or Duerer. (sorry for the bias. Lets add Cervantes, who spent a significant part of his life in prison.) See Luther: "Here I stand. I can do no other" Cervantes was more reflective, BEFORE Descartes, btw. This is the 1500's, an axis time, as they say. My point is that there is no necessary connection of being a 'Yeoman' and being a constituent of advancing societal matters, being them scientific or other. If one associates them with leisure and material resources, they utterley spoiled it most of the time. See the british 'Yeomen' in the countryside nowadays. They rent their castles, or as London-city billionaires own a football-club but do not sponsor a research institution, not even talking about doing creative research on their own , as eg Lavoisier did. Nowadays we have young Facebook/Zuckerberg following the footsteps of Oracle/Ellison. An easy role-model. Make tons of money. Buy a big yacht. Some fancy houses. Add some power plus bullshit theses. Give the finger to everybody else. Here you are. Apple/Jobs ist just too difficult. Leisure primarily is just that: leisure. It is the interests of the moneyed class of its time, which directs society at large, and its talents in particular. It depends on the societal value system, what to do with it, especially, what those people, having it, think merits them some additional status within their tribe. See eg Bourdieu 'La Distinction' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Distinction Maybe I sound too much like a class warrior for Your taste. I'm not. I am just disgusted by the preferences of our contemporary 'leaders'. But maybe I'm misunderstanding what You are trying to say. Plus: I digress. This is probably utterly uninteresting to the vortex-crowd. Guenther
