[Upd-discuss] Re: Are publishers relevant?

[Adam Moran]

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Sat, 11 Mar 2006 01:29:30 +0100  Lars Aronsson wrote:

> Andy Oram wrote:

>>I am becoming more and more convinced that the future of 
>>publication is user communities [...]
>>http://www.praxagora.com/andyo/professional/improve_doc.pdf

> It sounds more like you are searching for new business models for 
> O'Reilly than ways to expand the public domain.  Or did I miss 
> something?

We all need to make a living don't we, and I don't think that these two 
things are or should have ever been contradictory -- It's Aristotle's 
Household Management in it ?

But time is change in essence -- I mean, read the comment on this one 
about Google:

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/02/334122.html?c=on#c142593

Should we not have anything to do with Google, or should we kop the fact 
that this group of folk have more shout in the world than a few nation 
states put-together and we do have vested interests and if we are that 
bothered then we can always ask them and until we do there's no point in 
blackhearting them. Dunno, that was a question.

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Household Management

Property is a part of the household, and the art of acquiring property is a part of the art of managing the household; for no man can live well, or indeed live at all, unless he be provided with necessaries. 

---

Hence men seek after a better notion of riches 
and of the art of getting wealth 
than the mere acquisition of coin, 
and they are right. 

For natural riches 
and the natural art of wealth-getting 
are a different thing; 
 in their true form they are part of the management of a household; 
  whereas retail trade is the art of producing wealth, 
  not in every way, 
  but by exchange. 

And it is thought to be concerned with coin; 
 for coin is the unit of exchange and the measure or limit of it. 

And there is no bound 
to the riches which spring from this art of wealth getting.
 
As in the art of medicine there is no limit to the pursuit of health, 
and as in the other arts 
there is no limit to the pursuit of their several ends, 
for they aim at accomplishing their ends to the uttermost 
(but of the means there is a limit, 
for the end is always the limit), 
so, too, 
in this art of wealth-getting there is no limit of the end, 
which is riches of the spurious kind,
and the acquisition of wealth. 

But the art of wealth-getting 
which consists in household management,
on the other hand, has a limit; 
 the unlimited acquisition of wealth is not its business. 

And, therefore, in one point of view, 
all riches must have a limit; 
 nevertheless, as a matter of fact, 
 we find the opposite to be the case; 
  for all getters of wealth increase their hoard of coin without limit.

The source of the confusion 
is the near connection 
between the two kinds of wealth-getting;
 in either, 
 the instrument is the same, 
 although the use is different, 
 and so they pass into one another; 
  for each is a use of the same property,
  but with a difference: 

    accumulation is the end in the one case, 
    but there is a further end in the other. 

Hence some persons are led to believe 
that getting wealth is the object of household management, 
and the whole idea of their lives is 
that they ought either to increase their money without limit, 
or at any rate not to lose it. 

The origin of this disposition in men is 
that they are intent upon living only,
and not upon living well;
 and, as their desires are unlimited 
 they also desire that
 the means of gratifying them 
 should be without limit. 

Those who do aim at a good life 
seek the means of obtaining bodily pleasures; 
 and, since the enjoyment of these
 appears to depend on property, 
 they are absorbed in getting wealth: 

   and so there arises the second species of wealth-getting. 

For, as their enjoyment is in excess, 
they seek an art which produces the excess of enjoyment; 
 and, if they are not able
 to supply their pleasures 
 by the art of getting wealth, 
 they try other arts,
 using in turn every faculty in a manner contrary to nature.

The quality of courage, for example, 
is not intended to make wealth, 
but to inspire confidence; 
 neither is this the aim
 of the general's or 
 of the physician's art;
  but the one aims at victory 
  and the other at health. 

Nevertheless, 
some men turn every quality or art 
into a means of getting wealth; 
 this they conceive to be the end,
 and to the promotion of the end
 they think all things must contribute. 

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