No pride of craftsmanship

What happened to our pride of being a human being? It was not a matter if you had money or not, people wore their best attire to go out in public. As the famous adage goes, “You’re what you wear, wear well.” Nowadays people wear and do anything they want just because they can. You can see people wearing their pajamas at the grocery store no matter the time of the day. If the places you go don’t care, why should you?

If you look at old movies, you’ll see people well dressed in trains, enjoying a cigar in the cigar lounge, relaxing in small but well-designed sleeping areas. People on the old days tried to make everything functional and stylish, there was pride and that sense of raising the bar in everything around the human experience.

Cars, furniture, clothing, music, everything had this extravagant signature all over. There was real craftsmanship to things, there was some sort of dignity and pride to something a fellow human being had created. If you take a train now, there’s no character to it, it’s just a cage of metal, plastic, foam, and cheap vinyl. There’s nothing there that will make you think “this was created to make me enjoy my ride.” Do you feel like dressing up for such a sterile riding experience?

Take a walk around downtown area in your city, go to a store, any store. Do you feel like dressing up? Why would you? Let’s take for example the thriving Brickell neighborhood in South Miami. Tall buildings hide the sun from you, the roar of traffic and the thunder of airplanes numb your senses day in, day out. Supercars abound, the panache of this affluent location screams big money. If you like to see and be seen, this is the place to be.

On this same location, homelessness abounds, right in front of a big mall where luxury brands are being sold, homeless people shoot heroin on the curb or defecate right in front of bystanders. A couple of days ago I saw a homeless man cook a piece of meat over an improvised barbeque made from a disposable aluminum tray and a cooking grid (with burning coil and everything). What shocked me the most is the fact that not more than 70 feet away lies a lavishly decorated restaurant. Do you feel like dressing up to this? I can’t believe our lust for luxury is capable of removing such situations from our sight.

People used to walk around with pride, I believe that there was a collective pride of being a human being. This fulfillment of walking among our creation. “LOOK WHAT WE HAVE DONE, look at the cars we created, the instrument he is playing, the clothes she is wearing,”

Take a look at the cars now, a few of them have real character. Sure, you can find people that will say to you that with big budget you can buy a car with all the character you want. But that’s not what I’m saying. If we go back to the cars made in the 1950s’, 60s, and even the 70s. There's some mystique behind those muscle cars. Spending time to craft a beautiful car does not fit into the business model anymore. It’s all about profit, no pride in craftsmanship. It seems like we the public don’t deserve that anymore.

Look what happened to Detroit, it was the flagship car manufacturing city in America. Now it looks deserted, they all moved out leaving behind the remains of their glory days. Everything nowadays is disposable, made of plastic. Not too many things are worth to be exhibited in a shelve, there’s no pride of ownership behind; just use it, toss it, buy the newest one, repeat. Not to many things deserve to be put behind glass.

Putting all this into perspective made me realize all the effort people made back in the days. I want to make an effort to do this on a daily basis, around me I want meaningful things, things that came from an Idea that someone was passionate about, something that made someone feel proud of their achievement, this goes beyond a monetary transaction or a substantial increase in their net worth.

We as society need a wake-up call, the soul has been removed from everything, we can do so much better than this, we have so much to offer as a collective. We are so creative; we have so much potential. We shouldn’t be craving for things from the past to become a trend today. We got what it takes to build something beyond all that has been already created. I do believe that the golden era of human creation it’s just around the corner, not behind us.