Doesn’t mean it isn’t seen, or doesn’t exist. There seems to be an attitude that the value of manual skills is just being discovered, or that the resurgence of those skills is because of one thing or another.

All of that is, of course, bullshit, if you’re one of the people who actually does the work. And that’s a lot of people. Chip Foos gives a classic example in an interview with Car and Driver:

“C/D: Are people afraid to cut into old cars now?

CF: Time has become the expense. It used to be that the parts were expensive and the labor was always affordable. It’s at the point now that the labor is the expensive part and there’s less creativity. The biggest crime happening in America is the fact that they’ve pulled all these shop classes out of schools. Kids today, their dream isn’t to build something, it’s to buy something.”

Chip puts his finger firmly on something that annoys me a lot personally. The craft has become secondary to the acquisition of the product. And if the product is sold as “Artisinal” or “Handmade” and someone can make it seem cool, then people beat down your door. No matter if it’s a worthless piece of crap or not. And this does, in fact, damage the real artisans, the ones who do actual real world meaningful work, and it does so by devaluing legitimate craftsmanship as compared to the hip shit. Consider cabinetmaking, for a simple example. A lot of damned good cabinetmakers out there, but give someone the impression that one set of cabinets is cooler than another, and you won’t be able to make them fast enough. Though they be exact duplicates of something made on a machine twenty miles away. But I don’t have a clue, because I don’t know jack shit about craftsmanship or skills.