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RE: Technical writing as a trade; was, RE: Give Me a Clear Thinker (was STC certification: what's in it for tech writers?)
Subject:RE: Technical writing as a trade; was, RE: Give Me a Clear Thinker (was STC certification: what's in it for tech writers?) From:Chris Despopoulos <despopoulos_chriss -at- yahoo -dot- com> To:"techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Thu, 3 Nov 2011 05:02:54 -0700 (PDT)
Let's not get nasty in our political zeal. Do I sense some issues? (That's me actually emoting... or getting closer to it, anyway.) And what does IIRC mean?
In the first place, I never said anything about the quality of ethics put out by any guild, or even by the STC for that matter. That doesn't deny that guilds were concerned with ethics.
Secondly, lets not oversimplify the history. Guilds were in response to many things. In their time, the protection of work and status was very important. In cities and states where trades and crafts didn't enjoy this kind of protection, the lower classes suffered. It may be true that society in general suffered. It seems that the richest states also had well-formed and strong guilds. But I don't know enough to claim a correlation for sure.
I'm reading about Venice right now, and the guilds figure heavily. Ship building was very important, needless to say. The nobles valued the guilds highly because they were intimately connected to their maritime power. There was a hierarchy of guilds, as well. Caulkers were more valued than hull makers, for example. The guilds sent representatives to the government, they participated in pageantry, and they supported their parishes. They also provided for social security... Conscription was often mandatory, and if the head of your family died at the oars, the guild contributed to the family's survival.
Were guilds abusive, inert, inefficient, corrupt, etc.? Sure, but no more or less than any other political body then or now. At least, not as far as I can tell. Ship building in Venice was pretty darned efficient, though. In time of need they produced 100 ships in a 2-month span. And we can't forget that Venice was rich, powerful, and successful for most of its history. And fairly progressive compared to its contemporaries, I might add.
What I'm responding to:
************************
Chris Despopoulos emoted:
>
> That ethics bit kind of flies in the face of history, though.? Trade
> guilds were nothing if not bodies to enforce codes of ethics (as well
> as provide social security, representatives in government, and a host
> of other contributions to social order).?
Oh.
So, you're saying that after decades and centuries, guilds
didn't evolve into primarily restraint-of-trade mechanisms?
*** AND ***
IIRC, historically the trade guild codes of ethics were about how the guild
members were to interact with each other, as in not undercutting to steal
work or denigrate competitors for work, etc., and not with any sort of
social objectives in society as a whole.
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