A Rite is a Ritual for passage into social acceptance.
Science as such is an instrument of Angst reduction for society.
The Angst Reduction Ritual offers the performance social status.
Often this is marked by a symbol, or a sign, such as a tattoo.

The tattoo/sign/symbol itself can become a stamp of acceptance.
It can function as a gauge of social progress, or social stature.
But that can lead to confusion, by assigning the meaning to the sign.
As a result, it can be forgotten that it was the ACT that got the result.

In this way, in our society, graduation ceremonies are rites (rituals).
But often it is taken as a sign of quality of the school or of the teacher.
In part it is regarded as a qualification of the pupil, the student.
But most often in inverse; as now able to fulfil a role for others.

Traditional tribal ritual rites were NOT about subservience to other.
Instead, it was a feat of accomplishment of each individual human.
They had realised/conquered something within themselves (‘research’).
As a result their coping capacity had changed: due to Angst reduction.

The Guild system illustrates how the meaning of Rite was inverted/perverted.
This was due to the function of the Guild as a system for social monopolisation.
Membership was limited, traineeship was selective, and secrets were guarded.
Admission into ‘the club’ served the maximisation of profit by monopolisation/regulation.

The social rite of passage into the guild was also an entry into wealth.
The sign of passage thence had personal, social, financial and legal implications.
(Guild) Member Admission therefore was guarded, selective, exclusive, restricted.
This is the typical pattern of secret societies, functioning as a society on its own.

This shows that a rite of passage can lead from one society into another.
A Society, in general, is a group of people with same life interests.
A secret society is a subgroup with interest at the expense of others.
This is often, literally, possible cause for social dis-ease, and destruction.

Rites therefore can have different significance depending on context.
For entry into a closed society, the rite is a test, performed by others.
In an open society the rite is a sign of having tested oneself and overcome fears.
This sets rites apart as fear-inspiring or as fear-releasing.

By this definition the rite of entry into science is fear-inspiring.
Others test the ‘candidate’, using criteria defined by others.
This implies, thus leads to, subservience to others.
It signifies that scientists operate, as a guild, in dependence.

That is what we can see in the structure of the social organisation of science.
The rite is but corollary to a ‘stamp of approval’ ‘given’ by others.
In which it is clear that the ‘diploma’ is conditional, and can be revoked.
In that way adherence to the laws of the (science) society is ensured.

It means that scientists are NOT free in what they can think, nor how.
For their livelihood they are dependent on money.
For money they must comply with the social conduct/laws.
And what they do, and how they do it, is determined by money.

Working for money is called prostitution; if it involves natural actions.
Thinking is a natural activity; which become mercenary if done for money.
Science becomes mercenary/prostitution/slavery if done for money for survival.
In that sense, the academic path is a one way street into a social prison.

This problem, of determination by money, does not apply only to science.
It is considered normal, and called a career, into any profession (or guild…).
Scientists even consider it as a ‘freedom’ to choose to work “corporate”/”military”/”government” of “independent”.
Each of these is a separate society, within the same guild, with different conditions.

The independent scientist is free to think/research, and free to find funders.
The government scientist (or academic) has fixed income and fixed conditions.
The corporate scientist gets more income under more conditions (transfer of ownership of ideas).
The (secret) military scientists lives under strictest conditions but may be best resourced.

It is wise to relate this social dynamic to the Nuremberg trials at the end of Nazi era.
There it was made clear that following order (for money) does not absolve from responsibility.
It was deemed that soldiers were in their right to refuse orders which harmed (non-military) others.
In the same way scientist can, must, be held responsible for all damage that ensues from their ideas and/or actions.
 

This means that we cannot allow, nor afford, to regard the passage into science are a ‘government rite’.
It is not the government’s right to test/select/educate/admit students according to government/corporate criteria only.
The (graduated) student will have to be responsible individually, always for every consequence of any scientific action.
That means that entry into science must be able to take place as a rite into self-realisation also.

The www.holoversity.eu project has been set up to ensure this trail for self-realisation.
It is a collaboration web site in which autodidact students can work together.
They individually must determine their course, curriculum, criteria and credentials.
Because they must be able to function as independent scientific thinkers.