No room for true craftsmanship in the modern pot

No room for true craftsmanship in the modern world
of mass production
There is no room for true craftsmanship in the modern
world of mass production.

To a larger extent than not, I agree with this statement.

I say this based on my experiences with hand-made and
mass-produced things.

In my house there is a set of furniture handed down by my
great-grandparents. In spite of more than a hundred years
old, the one table and four chairs of this set are in
immaculate condition. It is obvious a lot of care had been
given in making these beautiful pieces. I cannot detect a
single nail in them. The wood used is teak and the table
and chairs are still sturdy. In fact I would say that they are
sturdier than some new ones. They are products of real
craftsmanship.

In my house too are some tables and chairs break after a
few months. The wooden ones show signs of slip-shod
workmanship and judging by the rate of wear and tear,
they will be useless long before the hand-made ones.

The craftsmen of yesteryears made things of high quality.
Also they made them to last a long time. Mass-produced
things cannot have such high quality and they do not last
long. I suspect that manufacturers of mass-produced thing
purposely make things not to last so that the consumers
will be forced to keep buying new ones. It is good

business for them, not so for the consumers though.

Another thing about mass production is that the workers
are generally not skilled craftsmen. They are merely
employed to operate machines or do some routine work.
No creativity is necessary or encouraged. They just do as
they are told, and that is to produce as much as possible
as cheaply as possible. On the other hand a craftsman is
usually not very much concerned about how much profit
he will make. He is more concerned about how well he
makes something. He has to be creative and skillful. Thus
the product of his work is what we admire as
craftsmanship. He may not get much for his work, but for
him satisfaction is not so much in money but in a job well
done.

Modern radios, tape recorders, cars, furniture, computers
and other goods are made only to attract buyers. They last
only until the manufacturers come out with newer ones
with more gimmicks and features. It is an on-going game
played by manufacturer on gullible consumers. Their
advertisements are basically: “buy, buy, keep buying our
products.” So the consumers keep buying and buying. The
craftsmen and their laboriously slow ways are forgotten.