Hand Craft is Not a Luxury!
diatribe |ˈdīəˌtrīb|
noun
a forceful and bitter verbal attack against someone or something.
Be warned.
It has been said that local hand craft is a luxury item, or even that any hand made object is a luxury item because all the object we really need are provided by the industrial system. For me this does not make any sense whatsoever. Let's explore this for a few minutes.
I'm not a scientist or an expert in the field of economics but I do think I have some common sense. I do not think that an object that is made from material that is grown or harvested in one part of the world shipped to the other side of the world for manufacture then shipped back to the opposite side of the world is in fact cheaper. Yes by mere price it may appear so but if we were to look at the amount of resources in the form or fuels, either petrol or food for the human labor involved, I don't think it's true. What about all the other costs that are involved that have been hidden from view? How can a basket made by a human (the only way it can be done, no machine has been made yet to weave one) on one side of the world handled by dozens of people and a few automobiles, a giant ship, countless more machines that are made from resources as well and fueled by them, and ending bunch of semi trucks to bring it across the US, handled again by at least 3-12 different people can be cheaper than one made by the neighbor down the block? and there is still profit in it for countless folks involved? How? I think we have been tricked into thinking that an object made within 100 miles is a luxury item. The luxury item is in fact the one that has travel in part or whole around the world at least once before reaching the consumer. The actual cost of ALL the resources involved in say a basket from Asia compared to one from down the street both delivered to the same retail shop are not the same. It's common sense. The idea that hand made or locally made items are a luxury is lie and illusion.
Keep the money in your community and it will stay in you community, spend it on object made from the industrial machine/system and the most of that money spent will never return to your community. That's a fact. Cheaply priced products are not cheap, there's more to it. I'm not saying we all should just throw down all the manufactured objects and walk away. This would be impossible and not really that effective. But we can slowly make changes in our lives, little by little. Filling our homes with locally produced object whenever the need arises. Instead of buying that cheap chair from Ikea or wherever, buy a handmade one. Yes, it will be hard to find a local chair maker (I wonder why?) and it may cost more up front but it will last a lifetime if not longer. This is an honest way into the future...by supporting each other, our neighbors and fellow community members, things will change for the better. This is part of what the Wood Culture Renaissance is all about. It's also what the Hand Made or the Hand Crafted Renaissance is all about, it's about all moving forward together, encouraging quality, hard work, skill, and respect.