askchapo

I'm really hoping someone will figure out how to effectively poison hte well because I am experiencing legit despair looking at thsse things.

One of the things left out of the luddite narrative is that while the looms were very good at producing cheap and abundant cloth they didn't produce good cloth. Hand weaving by true experts could produce fabrics of a quality and fineness that doesn't exist anymore. When the looms destroyed craft weaving those secrets of the trade were lost. Entire categories of fine fabrics don't exist now, can't be had for love nor money because no one knows how to make them. At most a handful of hobby weavers might be able to produce very limited amounts.

Being able to produce vast amounts of cheap, good enough fabric was mostly a huge boon as it brought the cost of clothing down enormously. But we don't need infinite cheap good enough art. And if what happened to all the crafts - the replacement of skilled craftspeople and masters with good enough mass production, with the loss of all those trade secrets and skills - happens to art we will be incomprehensibly poorer for it. The Mona Lisa hinges on a few brush strokes that set it apart from other pieces.