Will the next generation follow our path?

Re: Social growing pains...

Chris Scholz

>That's funny Barb.

Not too long ago I was one of these people in one of these tiny villages.

What do we do?

Learn a language or two, get a few post-graduate degrees and contribute to maintaining our (speaking now as a naturalizes citizen) technological superiority relative to the rest of the world. If time permits we also cut wood or hang out in these woodworking fori (or should that be forums?)

Re: Social growing pains...

Wiley Horne--So. Calif.

>" As the throw-away society spreads to less affluent countries, and it will, the value of quality hand made items will increase, and the common human need to make something for oneself will increase." Barb Siddiqui

_________

This is a keen insight of Barb's. The throw-away society will generate its opposite, the quality society. Just as the "virtual experience" that Thom spoke of will create the desire for "authentic experience".

These are grounds for optimism: People get a bellyful of throwaway and virtual, and they want to be real, make stuff, and get hold of their lives rather than just be swept along.

The crux of the matter is to keep the path to authentic experience--as best we know it--accessible and well lit. Many people are doing this--those teaching their kids, those posting on forums, those blogging, those writing columns. And those behind the scenes--take a look at Shop Shots some time, and see what David Yoho has been working on. I am personally very optimistic about the future.

Wiley

Re: Social growing pains... *LINK*

Barb Siddiqui

>"The crux of the matter is to keep the path to authentic experience--as best we know it--accessible and well lit."

There are many people doing this. One successful example is the Am.Assoc.of Woodturners' Kids Program at their annual symposiums..reaching kids across the country and infecting them with the woodturning bug. The bigger lesson is the 'making' of something, which is often a revelation to kids (in our throw away society.)

Another example is Doug Stowe, now president of the Nat'l.Assoc.of Home&Workshop

Writers, who has started a K-12 program at his local school district in Arkansas: Link below. This man has made it his mission to introduce hand work at very young ages, and I admire his dedication.


Doug Stowe

Re: Social growing pains...

Barb Siddiqui

>Chris- If you were raised there, I envy your upbringing! I don't know that we are 'technilogically superior' to the rest of the world, but we're arrrogant enough to think so.

What to do? I guess, adapt and improvise, as those small villages have so cunningly done. There are resort shingles hung out on grand houses for rooms to rent, and playground/petting farms advertised along the roads to stop tour buses, and bistro/cafes in little towns. Lots of galleries and knick-knack shops in winding, cobbled streets with mural-painted houses draped in flower boxes. (Flower-boxes...now There's a German woodworker's bread and butter.) As to adapting and improvising, in my view, when the credit card-debt economic tumble hits us, we'll all have to find ways to do the same for a while. It may be a humbling experience. And hand made practical goods may be in demand once more that way, too.

Re: It's not only that...

Richard L. Darin

>This has nothing to do with wood working but as a young man I went to IBM to review the specifications for a system we were building that was to be used to wire-rewire the central processing unit for a mainframe computer. The thing that has remained with me over the years is that I was turned loose in the research lab to see anything that interested me and my questions were answered freely without reservation. However when we went into the manufacturing area I was escorted by a high level executive and much of the equipment and process was screened to protect what was going on from my view.

I always have thought that our strength as a country was not necessarily science but the ability to realize the science. I think that we have given that away. I hope this is clear I am supposedly recovering from my forth stroke and words don't come easy.

Re: It's not only that...

Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX

>I hope this is clear I am supposedly recovering from my forth stroke and words don't come easy.

Clear as a bell, Richard. Amazing given four strokes.

Pam