> Barbarism – the period during which man learns to breed domestic animals and to practice agriculture, and acquires methods of increasing the supply of natural products by human activity.
> It is the purpose of this memorandum to show, in an objective way, that under existing circumstances there need be no fear, and no hope, of an eventual overturn in America, such as would unsettle the established order and unseat the Vested Interests that now control the country's industrial system. In an earlier paper (The Dial, October 4) it has been argued that no effectual move in the direction of such an overturn can be made except on the initiative and under the direction of the country's technicians, taking action in common and on a concerted plan."
The Engineers and the Price System.
https://ia600303.us.archive.org/33/items/engineersandpri01ve...
So hey, of obvious interest here :)
Edit: So this is where Stephenson gets "barbarians" in Diamond Age. Also Burroughs his technician archetypes.
Akin to "villanus" (someone living in a village), it took a derogatory tone later, as someone "uncivilized", but that was not part of its literal meaning.
I think that he styles everyone except working-class geeks as barbarians.
BTW, there's a Wikipedia article about the book. [1]
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Theory_of_the_Leisure_Clas...
But as far as I can tell, so far, he doesn't clearly define the term in the book.