Not Citizens, But Consumers

A change has come over our democracy, it is called consumptionism. American citizens’ first importance to his country is now no longer that of citizen, but that of consumer.

Samuel Strauss, 'Atlantic Monthly' November 1924

(Quoted in Adam Curtis' 'The Century of the Self' 2002)

The Desirability of Compelling Children to Work

On the desirability of sending poor children to workhouses and schooling them:

There is considerable use in their being, somehow or other, constantly
employed at least twelve hours a day, whether they earn their living or not;
for by these means, we hope that the rising generation will be so habituated
to constant employment that it would at length prove agreeable and entertaining
to them.

William Temple, 1770 (quoted in EP Thompson, 'Time, Work-Discipline & Industrial Capitalism')

Carrots, Sticks & Donkeys

Because there are neither carrots nor goads, there will be no
donkeys, for when children are treated as we would have them be, they
tend to reach out accordingly.

Bloom, A.A. (1949) Compete or Co-operate?, New Era, 30(8), pp. 170-172

(This was quoted by Saul Albert in a post to the University of Openness list.)

John Holt on 'education'

Education... now seems to me perhaps the most authoritarian and dangerous of all the social inventions of mankind. It is the deepest foundation of the modern slave state, in which most people feel themselves to be nothing but producers, consumers, spectators, and 'fans,' driven more and more, in all parts of their lives, by greed, envy, and fear. My concern is not to improve 'education' but to do away with it, to end the ugly and antihuman business of people-shaping and to allow and help people to shape themselves.

John Holt (quoted here)

Mr Antolini in 'The Catcher in the Rye'

"I'm not trying to tell you," he said, "that only educated and scholarly men are able to contribute something valuable to the world. It's not so. But I do say that educated and scholarly men, if they're brilliant and creative to begin with - which unfortunately, is rarely the case - tend to leave infinitely more valuable records behind them than men do who are merely brilliant and creative. They tend to express themselves more clearly, and they usually have a passion for following their thoughts through to the end. And - most important - nine times out of ten, they have more humility than the unscholarly thinker."

J.D. Salinger, 'The Catcher in the Rye' (1951)

I've been coming back to this passage for years. It could sound like a counter-argument to Illich's "deschooling" - yet Illich was every bit the scholar. His response would probably be that education systems are destructive of the kind of learning Mr Antolini has in mind. Also, I remember being told to push on through and endure the arbitrary unpleasantnesses of school because one day I would reach an academic elysium which would feel like home - whereas my experience of Oxford was every bit as troubling and unhomely, if for different reasons, as my earlier education.

James Elkins on craft as a 'state of mindfulness'

Craft suggests pottery and carpentry, and other kinds of making, but the craft ethic extends beyond the skilled use of our hands. Craft is a way of thinking, an attitude of mind, a way of relating to any set of constraining materials, a relation of materials, skill to mind in a way so a particular person becomes known for the quality found in their use of materials. Craft is both skill and mind-set, making and doing. Craft is a state of mindfulness and a way of being.

Craftsmanship as a frame of mind (mind-set, attitude) is not fixed, or given, or inevitable, but a kind of character, a learned disposition, a habit formed over time. It can be learned. An attitude can be molded, formed, shaped (in the same fashion that we work with physical materials).

James Elkins, 'Practical Moral Philosophy for Lawyers: Imagining What We Do as Craft'

This and the previous quote come from a handout that my friend Anthony McCann used for one of his workshops on Crafting Gentleness.

Carla Needleman on 'the craft of being human'

The laws of craft and the teachings of any particular real craft run parallel to the craft of being human. The craft teaches precisely through bypassing the self-indulgent speculative part of the mind that would rather think about working than work. The craft provides experience. I can learn through the order of experiences. The craft will lead me if I am able to put aside my impatience and follow.

Carla Needleman, 'The Work of Craft' (1979)