From the Archives: Craftsmanship, A Human Birthright
A bit more personal, and a bit out of its original context, but a good lil piece nonetheless.
Craftsmanship: The Human Birth Right
This may start out as an idea that seems slightly outside the preview of permaculture, but I believe these ideas are deeply interconnected. I've been trying to figure out what the post-consumerist world will look like, and I've come to a few conclusions about this, the subject of this post is what I call Total Ownership. An idea that becomes more relevant the more you think about it.
How to describe this, I guess I would say the idea in its most essential form is that instead of purchasing the item you want from the store, you build it yourself. By doing things this way you take total ownership for the item you are interested in, you understand it and its constructing well enough through the process of creating it that you can make it your own and modify it through time to perfect it within your own eyes.
To create an example of this idea in action, lets elucidate the antithesis. Within the consumerist model you buy a car, but you can't do maintenance or repair on the car, only the manufacturer with their mechanics can do the maintenance. You might own the car on paper but they still have control of the car in the real world we all live in. If they want designed obsolescence or chronic maintenance costs that is within their preview having total control of the operational function of the car. Its not your car.
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