We had a little ‘Crafts’ fair in our town today. No fake, plastic, 3D printed, sham items, thank you very much. This fair comes around on the last Sunday of every month. I wonder what the craftsmen do with the rest of their time. How do they make a living? Can you make a living making nice things in Onesy’s & Twosy’s in this day and age? It speaks of a better time; but here it is – and the time is now.
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- I’ve had this thought…see if it makes any sense…Remember the ‘Luddites’? They were a group of workers in the textile industry in England who railed against the mechanized loom…they thought such machines would put them and other people out of work. The result of which is history has looked at them as being ‘Anti-progress’ and a little short sighted, if not outright stupid. Here’s the thought: The Luddites of today are not the workers; but some large corporations which do not want new mechanisms taking over their present way of doing things – and threatening their profits, thereby. We saw it a few years ago when GM tried to squash the electric car (and did a good job of it for a while)…We see it today when the Fossil Fuel Industry (aka Big Oil Billionaires) do not want wind and solar, et. al, doing what old fashioned oil can do. Years ago, during our Civil War, one of America’s richest men made his money by making horse saddles for the Union Army. Thank the Good Lord above this man did not have the lobbying power to squash the oncoming horseless carriage. (…maybe it might have been better if that chunk of progress had been successfully Luddited.) Anyway, my thought is in today’s world it is the large corporations who, in the interest of squeezing as much profit out of existing assets, are holding back supply chain progress – not labor. Will history soon look at our Corporations, (Which are ‘People too’. See: Citizens United v. FEC) as being ‘Anti-progress’ and a little short sighted – if not outright stupid? It seems to me things were upside down for the Luddites of yesterday and are upside down for the Luddites of today…I wonder what right side up would look like. Sorry if this sort of thinking bores you; but I have no other place to put it.
- Synthetic voices? Artificial Intelligence? Deep-Fake Photos? What next? Make-believe Smells? Untoucheable feelings? False Gods?…Counterfit Crafts?
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Some quotes:
- It’s all going to pot/Whether we like it or not/Best I can tell/
The world’s gone to hell/And we’re all gonna miss it a lot” -Willie Nelson - “..wish Coke was still Cola/And a joint was a bad place to be/
It was back before Nixon lied to us all on TV/Are we rolling down hill
Like a snowball headed for Hell?/With no kind of chance
For the Flag or the Liberty Bell” -Merle Haggard
Maybe it’s a mood. Maybe it’s Allergies. I’ll call it a week….And a Good Night to Mrs. Calabash…Wherever you are. If you ever were.
