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| Gutenberg's Printing Press |
I must admit that I had to laugh when reading the story of the beginning of the business of selling books created by a printing press. When John Fust (colleague of Gutenberg and Schoeffer in the business of the first printing press) set out to Paris to sell their first editions of the Bible, he had great success, much to the dismay of the other manuscript and book vendors in the area. When they began to notice that he seemed to have an unlimited supply of books, they assumed it was by the power of the devil that he had gained such a treasure and they ran him out of the city. This story certainly isn't the first one I have heard of in history where a threatened people formed into a mob. But while learning about it, I began to realize that opposition always forms when the greatest changes happened in humanity.
As humans we are inherently uncomfortable with change. New possibilities are frightening because they mean that the course of our life may not be what we previously imagined. But oftentimes those who become great are those who accept change and open their minds to new possibilities. In the case of John Fust and the mob who ran him out of Paris, if one of those vendors had just approached him with an interest in learning how his "treasure of books" had been formed, they may have been given the opportunity to join him in the business. A response of fear lost this great opportunity for the mob. I believe that if we open our minds to new perspectives and points of view, we will be surprised to see that our opinions and beliefs may change. If they don't change, then we will become even more firm in our current beliefs and values, as we have considered all of the other possibilities. It is never wrong to try to see from a new perspective. In fact, it can only make you better.
I really like your commentary about opening your mind to new perspectives and possibilities. I think perhaps even today there are times where a society is close-minded to a new perspective and of course some instances where the new perspective may be detrimental to the society when put in practice. However, despite any negative consequences a new perspective may have, it is important to still consider it because learning why something is contrary to a system of beliefs helps further establish that system.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting how the introduction of new technology is perceived by different audiences. The people of Paris could have greatly benefited from this man's copies of the Bible, however, because they misunderstood how he created them, he was chased out. We see this all the time with new introductions of technology. People laughed when the first computer creators said that one day every household would have their own PC. People fear the unknown, that is why change is often met with hate.
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