On Wed, 07 Jan 2009 02:03:04 -0800, the infamous pyotr filipivich
scrawled the following:

I skipped the meeting, but the Memos showed that Larry Jaques
wrote on Tue, 06 Jan 2009 16:15:25
-0800 in rec.crafts.metalworking :

Yeah, there was that downside of the press, too. Once the SOBs
got their bibles in mass-production, gazillions of missionaries went
hog wild. The rest is history. (Crusades, Spanish Inquisition, etc.)

Let me see, Gutenberg did his printing starting in 1450, the first
Crusade was launched in 1095 and the last in 1270, and the Inquisition
was 1478-1834 (officially. No One Expects the Spanish Inquisition!).
Yep, I can see the link between the printing press and the Crusades
and Inquisition.

Oops. Somebody stepped on their appendage there, didn't they? blush


It really hurt the control the Church had over the masses and was
considered the Devils Tool by some of the Church hierarchy...some.

Anything which takes potential money out of the church's pocket is
evil and must be destroyed! They can't have their scams taken over by
someone else, now can they?

I seem to recall of a company which made sure that none of their
employees could read. Something about not wanting them to be reading
_any_ books and getting ideas above their station.

Ayup. Management has a history of being shortsighted, doesn't it?

--
Books are the compasses and telescopes and sextants and charts which other
men have prepared to help us navigate the dangerous seas of human life.
--Jesse Lee Bennett