That is suitable for framing! Thanks for posting it. This should be a mantra: "he knows the joy of fixing things, of working with his hands, of applying his brainpower to solving material problems, of doing tangible work that is straightforwardly useful."
And in a society where it is cheaper and easier to replace, than repair, the satisfaction of doing work yourself has to be it's own reward. Because few people are willing to pay you for it. "Craftsmanship, he suggests, is a potent defense against planned obsolescence, wastefulness, consumerism, narcissism, alienation, isolation, and the outsourcing of jobs." Good theory, but I don't buy it.
this I've heard before and agree with it. you can outsource computer support to where-ever. however you can't have a girder welded, nail hammered, block bored, and so on by someone sitting at a computer on the other side of the world.
"The satisfactions of manifesting oneself concretely in the world through manual competence have been known to make a man quiet and easy," he writes. "They seem to relieve him of the felt need to offer chattering interpretations of himself to vindicate his worth." - excellent !!
I think we need to make sure we don't denigrate the "knowledge based" work either. This fellow is merely saying it's time we (they?!) STOPPED denigrating real work as below mention. We can slag the "soulless" white collar jobs but then we would be no better. They have their place. I'm going to get this book but I think to most here it is like preaching to the choir. We already KNOW this without any metaphysical hocus pocus! I'm a cublicle dweller at work but I estimate REAL jobs that get done at the end of the day and I have come from the field. To the people that think the computer is the be all and end all I usually say... "You can't fix a leaky toilet with one" As an aside I enjoyed the article itself. The writer is very skilled and it is a pleasure to read GOOD writing. I was pointed to another book called, Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle. I think of Micheal Jackson's funeral...
This is a timely post. I read a lot of philosophy and I just finished reading the book that the article discusses. He based the book on a premise near and dear to me, but his writing is quite weak. Save your 15 bucks.
I want to know if his Jeep started. Great article. I've gotten really conteplative lately on the idea that we as a nation don't really "make" things anymore. Ironically that was spurred by another HAMB post on Chinese manufacturing. It's good to see that someone is not only thinking about those that make things, but bringing it to the attention of the masses. Thanks for the post.
Thanks for the heads up review. I'm going to try an interlibrary loan search to see if one is available to take out for free.
Very true about the high schools beating it into to students brains that college is the only way to make a decent living. I just graduated high school, and I'm a freshman in college now, but it is completely true that they try to make students believe that if you don't go to college you're screwed forever. My welding teacher in high school is the only one that would tell us straight up that just because you go to college doesn't guarantee you'll be successful, and there will ALWAYS be a demand for people that can physically build things and fix things. I chose to go to college(for mechanical engineering) because I'd worked hard in school, made good grades, and have the opportunity to go to college. But I'll always be blue-collar at heart, which I think will make me damn good engineer someday.
The guy who fixes your air conditioner or repairs your toilet will rise to the top of the food chain in our lifetimes. They push kids away from blue collar careers nowadays so we're building a world full of people who know lots of stuff but can't actually DO anything to help themselves in the real world. Those people are going to be writing the checks to the service workers soon enough.
"The world needs ditch diggers too" As a recently laid off middle manager who is having a ball tinkering in the shop now, this really makes me think about turning wrenches again for a living. I worked my way through college as a mechanic and followed the path that had been laid out for me by parents and high school. One brother is a machinist, one owns a steel fabrication business he built by hand, and I think both of them are happier with actually producing something than I was managing a dept. of people that did not produce anything either. This article sums up the joy I have found being creative again and building stuff. Even if is just a tool that I need to complete a project. Typically one that pre-lay off I would have just bought. I was an HR manager and recruiter in a very blue collar industry and have been preaching for years that we need to work with kids in schools and vo tech systems. Teach them that is it ok to sweat and perform work that gets you dirty. Our country is breading a generation of students that do not want to get thier hands dirty. Not everyone is able, or needs to go to college. Thanks for this post.
Koolade, Jeep started after a few revolutions, was at the end of the article. Yekoms Thanks for posting the link to the article, good read, think I will read the book. Glad I was around gearheads as a youngster I learned alot and built my whole life around what I learned, and still learning today at 43, it still amazes me the amount of men that can't change their own oil in their vehicles, hell my sister builds her cars from the ground up, my nephew goes to college on a full scholorship off his grades, I bought him a full set of tools when he was 14, he built his first car, now he makes his spare cash from working on his fellow college students cars, if not for that skill he would really be a broke college kid. I've taught a few neighborhood kids basic mechanics, now they are gearheads like the rest of us here, I feel I should return the favor whenever possible, the guys I looked up too, did it for me. Pay it forward.
The Jalopy Journal
