> this is still the case. for example, the priest class
> in present-day America is the lawyers. the Bible has
> been replaced by the Constitution as the offical
> Sacred Text. just as the Catholic Church once
> discouraged the private ownership and reading of the
> Bible (lest it should lead to a multiplicity of unqualified
> and conflicting interpretatons) and regarded its priests
> as the only ones with the authority to render an opinion
> about its meaning, so too does the American priest class
> hold itself up as the sole arbiter of the Constitution.
> this is how the "no law" of the First Amendment actually
> came to mean "some laws" (among a number of other stunning
> hypocrisies).
>
> the power and magic of deciding the meanings of words has
> always been claimed by the priest class of any society.
>
> ---corey
I never thought of it like that, but you're right--the lawyers are
the new priest class. I predict that they will give way to another
priest class: the geeks! More precisely, the computer-literate.
--Bill Haloupek haloupekb@uwstout.edu http://www.mscs.uwstout.edu/~billh/home.html My employer doesn't share my opinions, my webpage is under construction, and my life is based on a true story. Will solve math problems for food.