The Lost Love for Labor

The title refers to America's, if not the entire Western world's, disdain for labor of any kind...that is, those activities which produce something, starting with raw material and produce an asthetic or utilitarian object or service.

There is the mental labor as well as the physical labor which fulfill a need in most humans to contribute to and to change their world... and yet all activities which produce income seem to exist sitting at a computer keyboard, utilizing the labor of the elctronic master.

Once the software is written, there is no diversion from the program. There is no contribution from the operator. Even in the most artistic of professions, the artist is limited by the imagination of the software programmer.

Those who extract the raw materials, mostly in non-Western countries are on an even lower plane of existence than those who produce. They generally risk their lives and health to be eternally indebted to owners of the raw material source.

There is still hope found in many countries which still have cottage industries producing textiles and utilitarian objects from natural materials on a human scale. Maybe we can get inspiration from these people who still know what their hands and minds can do and where our purpose is something more than to answer telephones or operate computers.