What happened to standing on the shoulders of giants?
[WS:] Good point. Those who are standing there have a greater risk of falling down and crashing than those standing on the ground. In that respect, they are like mountain climbers - they started from greater heights than lowland dwellers, but they also faced greater risks of falling - so it requires considerable skill to climb even higher.
Of course, in everyday life those standing on other people's shoulders and falling are often bailed out by friends and cronies in high places - but that merely prevents them from crashing, rather than aiding them in climbing. Therefore, to answer Joanna's question - whether one stands on the shoulders of others or not, it still takes INDIVIDUAL effort, skill, sense of responsibility and good judgment to make the right choices to get somewhere else from where one stood.
Why should people be reproached or resented for effectively utilizing resources that they had?
Wojtek