i think we lose more than craftsmanship. i think we also lose discipline, for some people hard work ethics, and initiative. in general, we tend not to do things for ourselves because there's something or someone there to do it for us.

oh man oh man... i think ill get back to this later. there's so much i want to go into with this topic. from abilities being lost, to the relationship this has with evolution, to the psychological impact of generally relying on something other than self to do something [for some reason paris hilton crosses my mind], etc. this is a good question LK!!

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[belief is NOT the same as TRUTH]

I think that not only have we lost the craftmanship, but also the feeling of satisfaction in knowing that you have done a job - and done it well.

Coming from a small market town in Suffolk (that's in England.... ), much of my early life was around farm-workers, who had only very recently made the change from using horses to driving tractors, indeed, the farmer whose land (now built on) was opposite our house still used horses for many of the jobs, such as pulling a tumbril of sugarbeet tops to feed the cattle when they were out on the pastures during late Autumn/Winter.
The reason for this was that the horse didn't damage the land as much as a tractor did.
Now-a-days 'pan-busters' are required.

At one time i worked with an ex-horseman, who took great pride in the fact that he had - on more than one occasion - won a copper kettle for his skill at drawing a straight furrow. (They used to hold drawing-matches each year.) I have a feeling that he mentioned half-an-inch deviation, that is - the furrow he drew deviated half-an-inch from a dead-straight line over about 70 yards.

The horsemen would walk round the parish when the wheat (or whatever) started to grow, and see who had pulled the straightest ringes, he said the shame was "something awful" when on one occasion one of the counters on the drill had blocked and he never noticed it, and so one row of seed wasn't sown.
"The buggers laughed for the next twelvemonth."

There was also a great deal of pride in 'turning out' the horses properly, as with all of the jobs connected with farmwork.


Many of the rituals, traditions, customs, and beliefs associated with haysel, harvest, and other farming seasons dated back to pre-Christian times, blessing the plough, for instance, most certainly wasn't a Christian innovation.
Unfortunately (in my opinion) they are now mostly gone, and all in the space of 50 or so years.


Personally, i think that we have lost a great deal more than the traditions, customs, beliefs, and rituals, ancient as they were....
but at least we've got digital watches....
and 'Reality tv".

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"An object is perceived, or not perceived, according as the mind is, or is not, tinged with the colour of the object. "
Patanjali - Sutra 4:17

I don't think we have lost anything as far as craftsmanship, or satisfaction with a job well done or discipline. There are many artist and crafts people in this world. Others are developing other skills. Whether you are an artist, a philosopher, a spiritual teacher or someone with an expertise at camera or other technology you need to have discipline to do a good job. No matter what you are doing whether you are using advanced technology or not there is always a feeling of satisfaction at doing a good job. The technology is giving us more time to do the things we enjoy and time to be more creative. If I had to do all my house work in a manner that let's say my grandmother did, I would have less time to work on my ministry or do various service projects I am working on..and, often, these technologies help me with my endeavors. I do think if technology is making someone less creative or whatever it is because of their own personal choice..but it is not affecting society as a whole in the same way.

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RevKathyV

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