Shopclass as Internet Meme

It didn't take long for the coherent and nuanced thesis of Shopclass as Soulcraft to become a single-jpeg internet meme. While I object that here some (all) of Crawford's conceptual care is thrown out in favor of sloganeering and snappy "revolution" youth marketing, I do basically agree with everything being said (and I think Crawford might, too). There are a number of things listed in the above image that Crawford specifically talks about --- agency vs. autonomy, no real technical support from manufacturers, obscuring the insides of machines. I do admit to having pleasant daydreams of a Wikipedia of service manuals that would eliminate the schematic-hunting part of my job.

Yet the reality is that fixing things is not for everyone. So couching it in "sustainability" terminology, making it a moral imperative, basically excludes you if you're not of a mechanical mindset... and also wrongly pretends that the typically pragmatic mindset of the mechanic is always harmonious with planet-saving. If anything, I struggle with the tradeoff between the narrow view of a specific problem I have to solve, and the bigger picture of how my expedient micro-solution may do macro-level harm. Holding both perspectives at once involves a high level of tension.

I suppose the nice thing is that the fix-it types tend to be male, introverted, and action-oriented instead of verbally fluent. They're the people who also typically get dumped on during recessions and mass-layoffs, while the fat cats go on uninterrupted. So I'm glad that we can start to invest some more dignity into handwork centered in the life of useful things.