A decline in tool use would seem to betoken a shift in our mode of inhabiting the world: more passive and more dependent. And indeed, there are fewer occasions for the kind of spiritedness that is called forth when we take things in hand for ourselves, whether to fix them or to make them. What ordinary people once made, they buy; and what they once fixed for themselves, they replace entirely or hire an expert to repair, whose expert fix often involves installing a pre-made replacement part.
His argument throughout is that manual labor and skilled craft connect us intellectually and socially to the world and to our neighbors in a way that the so-called knowledge economy does not. I think he's on to something; the article made me want to quit graduate school and become a plumber.
2 comments:
How about the rabbinic tradition of doing both?
Not exactly on the same topic, but related, I think - there was an article in the R-G this past weekend about a guy named Louv who describes a "nature-deficit syndrome" in modern society. People spend all their time inside, interacting electronically instead of in person. Louv thinks it makes for a kind of soul-sickness, though I don't believe that's what he calls it. The connection with this post is that we deal indirectly with the things around us, and it probably is more satisfying to take away the interface.
But maybe - as a society - we're getting closer to interacting with something "other" by dealing with ideas or cells. And it does seem like it takes groups, not individuals, to unravel these kinds of mysteries. Maybe you shouldn't quit grad school yet.
Post a Comment