----- Original Message -----
From: "Craig Cowing"
big snip
What it comes down to is this--do we want to have bonsai remain a
relatively
elitist art, or include more people? Take your pick and pay your money.

Craig Cowing
-----------------------

Wha...?

Craig, every art, every sport, every hobby has general a general level of
participation and an elite (not elitist) level of participation. Your
question is a non sequitur.

Further, the idea that jargon, in general or in specific with bonsai, is
indicative of an elitist mindset among those who use it is equally vacuous.
It often appropriate and usually handy - else it would not be perpetuated.

Your examples of simple/inexpensive and brand-driven/expensive materials for
the bonsai endeavor are indicative of nothing more than individual choice,
knowledge and local availability. There is nothing good nor bad about
either choice and, again, neither is indicative of either elitist or
populist mindsets among users.

Surely there are elitists in any endeavor, but you may know them by their
actions, not by their buying habits or jargon use. The too-wide and poorly
defined brush you are painting with here is insulting and just plain
misleading.

Mortgage planners, doctors, architects, stock traders..., virtually every
endeavor has its own jargon that is "Greek" to the uninitiated. If "we"
want to vilify jargon, lets vilify all of it. But why, exactly? And how
might someone differentiate such an argument in our endeavor from plain ol'
racism? Is it jargon that is the trouble or is it Japanese language that is
the trouble? Neither is easier to understand when you're new to the game,
so what's the difference? Doctors and stock traders use jargon so that they
may more effectively and contextually communicate, not so that they may
exclude others from the conversation. It is no different with bonsai.
Statements that jargon in bonsai is meant to be exclusionary causes me to
wonder about those making such silly arguments.

Kind regards,
Andy Rutledge
www.bonsai365.com/
zone 8, Texas

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