Shop Class as Soulcraft

As with blue-collar jobs a century ago, white-collar work is now suffering a similar intellectual and skill degradation, Crawford argues, whereby “the cognitive elements of the job are appropriated from professionals, instantiated in a system or process, and then handed back to a new class of workers – clerks – who replace the professionals.” Corporate culture and teamwork have taken the place of individual responsibility. Brand projection has replaced the actual production of goods (now largely outsourced). Workers are judged subjectively by their somewhat opaque contribution to the bottom line, over which they have little individual control.

Written before the full extent of the credit crisis became apparent, the most prescient example Crawford gives is the modern mortgage broker. “Stripped of the kind of judgments that are at the heart of credit” and knowing the mortgage will be bundled, securitized, and sold on as generalized housing debt, the broker silences “the voice of prudence” and writes loans that he or she “knows to be bad.”

In contrast, Crawford argues forcefully that a manual skill – or a trade – is not, as many would imagine, just brute physical work without any intellectual component. Manual skills, from piano playing to motor-bike repair have to be learned; they require real knowledge that has to be honed over many hours of practice and experience. The end results are real too: if you play the piano badly nobody wants to listen; if you build the house poorly, it falls down; if you don’t repair the washing machine, it doesn’t work.

There is no escape from the consequences of bad workmanship or an ill-learned craft. The converse is that work well done gains the respect of co-workers and customers alike, and provides the objective means of judging the worker’s competency. Therein lies the satisfaction, security, and, increasingly, in this world of nonexpertise, the financial reward.

Crawford finally, perhaps all too briefly, touches on the contrast between how we in the West have been successful in preventing “the concentration of political power” by the “separation of legislative, executive and judicial functions” yet have failed miserably to prevent a concentration of economic power or to “take account of how such concentration damages the conditions under which full human flourishing becomes possible.”

For me, as an aspiring historian reluctantly diverted at age 18 into the family boat-building business, learning manual skills was initially challenging. Increasing dexterity and experience, however, brought confidence, the ability to run a complex business, and finally the satisfaction of becoming a yacht designer as well as a builder. I enjoyed “Shop Class as Soulcraft.” The fact that it resonated in many ways with my own experience and philosophy of life simply enhanced the pleasure.

The newly fledged college graduate, for whom this could be a very important book, might find it less than an easy read. Persevere, though: there are serious nuggets of truth here. It is worth at least thinking about going on to acquire a manual skill instead of disappearing into some amorphous office job. It could lead to a richer, more financially secure, and more fulfilling way of life.

George Whisstock designed and built custom yachts for over 30 years. Now living in Rockland, Maine, he specializes in downloadable yacht designs for home build. George blogs at The George Blog.

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