Its model, presented to contributors and bankers, is less scarce. Most importantly, the fundamental Principles of architecture and structural engineering have existence in sublime Idea. Those few learners, the brightest among us, who are able to sustain their attention in the ephemeralized realms of Principle, may be little restrained by the bounds imposed by material scarcity, by the implements of schooling. Most of us, however, both benefit and suffer loss as a result of apparently incidental proximity to substantial powers that channel scarce resources toward us and away from us. Physical-plant schools are scarce.
Good teachers are scarce.
Learning materials are scarce. Great artistic performances are scarce. Clear scientific demonstrations are scarce. And, whereas wonder for the uneducated child seems abundant, the scarcity of wonder diminishes as her education proceeds. Institutions and personalities insert themselves into the least resistant gullies, the lowest elevations, in order to establish regulating devices that attempt to channel knowledge-power into wider arenas of use.