creativity/machine

My good friend and open source crusader David Berry has taken the time to turn a plain text version of F.M. Conford’s famous 1908 satire on university politics, Microcosmographia Academica, into a much prettier pdf version. Choice cuts:

0 young academic politician, my heart is full of pity for you now; but when you are old, if you will stand in the way, there will be no more pity for you than you deserve; and that will be none at all.

I shall take it that you are in the first flush of ambition, and just beginning to make yourself disagreeable. You think (do you not?) that you have only to state a reasonable case, and people must listen to reason and act upon at once. It is just this conviction that makes you so unpleasant. There is little hope of dissuading you; but has it occurred to you that nothing is ever done until every one is convinced that it ought to be done, and has been convinced for so long that it is now time to do something else? And are you not aware that conviction has never yet been produced by an appeal to reason, which only makes people uncomfortable? If you want to move them, you must address your arguments to prejudice and the political motive, which I will presently describe.

It’s in the public domain, so if you enjoy it, spread it around via p2p or any other means of distribution at your disposal.

If you’re into copyleft, see also the libre manifesto.