I've been thinking along the same lines for a while. The guild system needs its reputation rehabilitated. Mercantilist propaganda about it has been left to stand too long.
Remnants of it still exist in the modern trades, e.g. electricians. But most artisans work independently or as wagies now, and unions in general are at best a bastardized version with some of the form and none of the function.
The biggest obstacle is anti-trust laws and corporate regulation more broadly, which in typical government fashion seem to accomplish the opposite of their stated intent, incentivising monopoly while undermining both quality and working conditions.
This just blows me away-it echoes the concepts of the counter-cultural movement and the craftsman concept. I only knew I embraced such things when I was young but did not know the historical reference. I am pretty overwhelmed with this piece and feel it sparks the divine nature within us that can cause a grass-roots movement that will be multi-generational. Encore!
This faded out in the era between WWI and the 1950s aftermath of WWII which was an era of biggism and the establishment man. It was reborn again in the late 60s through early 80s in the hippy arts and crafts and back to the land movement, which my parents were a part of. They made a good living in that era selling jewelry at arts and crafts festivals. The 80s through roughly now have been another era of the establishment being in control of culture, biggism and artificiality. I am hoping we are in the dawn of another decentralized anti-establishment crafting era with the rise of cheap CNC machines, laser cutters, etc.
Interestingly too, the establishment biggism based eras also seem to have militarism and more of a law and order attitude, where as the anti-establishment crafting eras are more peaceful and less authoritarian.
I figured your parents were my generation. Yes it goes in waves and I am always excited to see the movement being taken up again and moving it a little more down the road to a new society.
I really appreciated your post. There is so much to think about and future projections to make. I have always made things by hand with what I hope is the highest level of quality and beauty as the goal. My guild master was my grandmother, who trained me for years. My father also did the same thing in different arts. It was fabulous, and so I shared the skills with others who had the inclination.
There seems to be a growing hunger for both this path to excellence and the products produced. Guilds would provide a formalized path to survival, advancement and security.
The rise of the Merchant Princes as the blueprint for bottom line obsessed monopolies presaged our modern day Robber Barons. When you own the banks, transportation, manufacturing, and distribution of all or a majority of the elements in many industries you have the power to change everything you want. It was an ugly, murderous time, in many senses it is worse now. Apathy and disdain for the people versus hatred; a burning need for control and subjugation.
It is unsurprising that the flood of materials from other countries produced such awe inspiring art and development. Guilds could take advantage of this modern phenomenon as well with both hand and technical means.
You have inspired me to think about this excellent path to both reviving art and beauty for its’ own sake, but giving young people a solid path forward. Bravo!
Capitalism & Socialism, as pointed out, both end in impoverishment of the many by the few. Guilds strike a balance in favour of healthy protectionism, against destructive race-to-the-bottom capitalism. Yes, Guilds can be 'closed shops' and encourage nepotism but what's wrong with son following father? Done on a local village/town basis, Guilds make for a more equitable society. Some entrepreneurship might be 'stifled' but so what? It's always a balance. Here in Portugal, some businesses (eg: delivering gas bottles) are done by local licencing. Everyone makes a living and has time to sit in a café and drink coffee.
The Arts and Crafts Movement began in England in the 1860s as a reform movement. Its primary proponents were John Ruskin (1819-1900) and William Morris who is pictured at right (1834-1896). Ruskin, its philosophical leader, was the most influential of all Victorian writers on the arts and a member of the Pre-Raphaelite movement. The Pre-Raphaelites believed the medieval world was purer in form than the post-Renaissance world because it was more closely tied to nature. Ruskin's book The Stones of Venice (1853) had a great impact on the intellectuals of Victorian England. In it, he made a direct connection between art, nature, and morality-good moral art was nature expressed through man.
Continuing this connection, Ruskin believed the decorative arts affected the men who produced them. The machine dehumanized the worker and led to a loss of dignity because it removed him from the artistic process and thus, nature itself. As Ruskin stated, "all cast from the machine is bad, as work it is dishonest."
While Ruskin built the philosophical foundation of the Arts and Crafts Movement, it was William Morris who became its leader. Morris took Ruskin's ideas about nature, art, morality, and the degradation of human labor and translated them into a unified theory of design. By doing so, Morris successfully wedded aesthetics and social reform into the Arts and Crafts Movement.
Morris was appalled by the over-the-top ornamentation of Victorian design, especially its eclectic mix of styles. He was particularly disturbed by decorative arts produced by machines in mass quantity with no function but to decorate. This manufactured look was epitomized by furniture design known as "Eastlake." Charles Eastlake's name became synonymous with furnishings that copied ornate designs of earlier periods, but which were actually produced cheaply by machines. Eastlake himself was a reformer, advocating in his work Hints on Household Taste (1868) for a lighter form of decorative arts. Unfortunately, his name was forever tied to some of the worst examples of machined Victorian design.
Like Ruskin, Morris had a deep affection for the Middle Ages, especially the medieval idea of craftsmens' guilds. Along with architect Philip Webb, painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and others, he founded Morris & Co. in 1875. The guild was to create simple furniture, stained glass, and even wallpaper that united beauty, craftsmanship, and utility. He also founded the Kelmscott Press, a small book printing and binding company that became known for its outstanding examples of the book arts. He used the press to publish many of his own writings, thereby promoting the Arts and Crafts movement in both the content and style of the books.
But in all of his works, Morris believed that the Arts and Crafts Movement was much more than just a design theory. If the quality of design was improved, the character of the individual producing that design would be improved, and hence society would be improved. Here, Morris was clearly influenced by socialism. He observed the terrible working conditions of the factories, their environmental consequences on the surrounding countryside, and the exploitation of cheap labor that led to shoddy products. He believed society would be vastly improved by a return to the pre-industrial revolution days where craftsmen were both the designers and the manufacturers of products. Succinctly put, Morris sought to reunite "head and hand."
Morris was not wholly successful in translating the Arts and Crafts philosophy into a practical application. One of the most difficult obstacles was how to produce beautiful handcrafted items that could be affordable to the working classes. He never successfully overcame this problem, and most British Arts and Crafts items remained the luxury of the upper classes. But despite this, the Arts and Crafts movement swept England. Morris's disciples like C.R. Ashbee, Baillie Scott, and C.F.A. Voysey helped to form Arts and Crafts associations. Beginning in the 1880s, major exhibitions of materials identified as "Arts and Crafts" were held.
just yesterday i had a conversation about the best way to compensate artists. the other person favored *wage for labor* and my response to that is “we make THINGS tho.” i actually don’t want to be compensated for my labor b/c 1) there’s no way to estimate the cost involved for a lifetime of education/experience, materials + concept/creativity/craftsmanship, and 2) the point of my own art is to NOT be in a labor relationship. i just want to make stuff. plus, i’m already labor-compensated as a commercial artist and hate it.
i’ve always thought we took a wrong turn away from guilds. if commercial artists were guilded (is that a word?) i think we’d live much better lives (more power, more respect, more autonomy, etc etc).
YES. thank you! i’m about sick to death of the young left whippersnappers who insist that small biz owners are capitalist owning class—as if opening tattoo joint makes you a DuPont 😝
They are radical in nothing but their ignorance. For all their supposed radical communism most of them have never even read Marx, or if they did they didn't understand it.
This is brilliant. I’m really trying to get my kids to open their minds to the trades because of the lifestyle it offers. The apprenticeship programs can walk any one from unskilled to master electrician. Imagine reframing an entire economy this way. The guilds could give a ladder of excellence as you progress and get better at your trade. This would be a great way to merge technology and labor in a way that gives satisfaction to your life.
Yes it has the flexibility and sense of ownership and accomplishment that is fostered by capitalism, while eliminating the usury, rent seeking and corporatism that makes modern crony late capitalist corporatist societies so tedious
Great plan, making an idea real is so satisfying. That is why I need to do the paper cuts and music to do something real with my hands that has an end product other than ideas. I mean ideas are important, but doing like you are proposing is so much satisfying.
Just to push back against Radical Individualist's old comments - yes, the best of the master's, the the large cities, worked for the rich. But the journeymen were named journeymen for a reason - they journeyed. They went from town to town, city to city, to learn new styles other than their master's. They also, if they never achieved a master position, would settle in a town and be that town's main smith, or carpenter, or mason, etc. Or might be a city's lower end skill. The same for apprentices. The failed apprentice smith might still be good enough to bang together some horse shoes, repair a plow, etc at some po-dunk town where the guild doesn't care to enforce rules, as a side gig to his farming.
In the same manner, our new Polities and guilds can function the same way with a guild system, should we want them to. A standardized level of craftmanship, with those skills being transferred between polities by the individuals - is completely doable. Both within the traditional skilled trades, as well as those that you mention, such as CNC. A transfer and organization of labor such as this, between guilds, would be much more likely to be beneficially ran than at the state level. For they would know not just the needs of the laborers within their polity, but also the available pool and practices within neighboring polities as well.
It could be helpful, and an exception, if the government was planning large works or things necessary for the good of the state/people; and the guild was acting maliciously as we sometimes see in our unions. Then there obviously has to be some back and forth.
Anyways, it's definitely good food for thought. Oh, and I'll point out that the time line is interesting; as the paganization of Christendom in art and culture happens at the same time.
Yes, exactly. I was aware of the Medicis and have a cursory knowledge of their shady dealing together with the Jews. If I'm not mistaken the symbol displayed at all pawn shops originated with them, the scales, three circles and the upside down w thing that holds them.
Economic ideas and advanced mathematics gives me like a number dyslexia, my mind freezes and it's almost as if the numbers & symbols are not there, been that way my whole life. History, especially military history is my strength, but my econ knowledge is coming along the more this rotten system falls away to reveal the truth. If only I was in my twenties again.
The parallel society appears to be the path of implementation of what you've expounded on here. I have tried to persuade others who share these ideas but usually always get the Fuck it Walmart is cheaper, I love Amazon. One that I told that porn was a tool of the CIA and other globalist entities to keep you distracted, stupid, constantly pushing endorphins to cause you health problems said Fuck it I love the CIA and dismissed the endorphins theory as crackpot. Admittedly it could be but being diagnosed with cancer has led me to research that lends credence to it. He knows the government is rotten to the core and we're in a pivotal time. But the fact that he was unwilling to even consider that stunned me, maybe it should include UFO/UAP theory also
Thank you for forwarding this to me, it makes total sense and gives me a foundation to begin to speak intelligently regarding econ theory without so many gaps and gaffes. Have a great day.
I am now retired from a career as an architectural woodworker. Let me offer a few thoughts.
The Medicis lived before the industrial revolution. Guilds didn't just represent the ultimate in skill and ability, they were also the ultimate in productivity. Only the wealthy could afford skillfully made furniture. The 99% made do with whatever pieces of wood they could cobble together to make tables and chairs. Of course, the same goes for the art of the time. Michaelangelo, Caravaggio, etc. didn't create art for 'normal' people. They created art for rich people.
It was the industrial revolution, that began between one and two centuries after the Medici's, that created massive amounts of goods efficiently such that the average person could afford to buy them. It largely started with textiles, and then transportation, and then food production, then furniture and housing. Of course, energy production, largely via the steam engine was a backbone to all of this.
We have a romantic notion of craftsmen hand-making their goods. Frankly, I too have that notion, even though I know better. Professionally, I did what I could to blend classical design and esthetics with modern production techniques. I want nothing to do with Ikea on the one hand, but on the other hand I don't want to do my work entirely by hand, with no modern machinery.
Technology is changing so fast that each generation experiences a whole new set of parameters relative to the previous one. That is unsettling, but it's reality. A compromise is to buy the manufactured stuff that allows us the comfortable life that we have, but also buy special, handmade items that fulfil our need for a connection both to our esthetic selves and to the past.
And now I'll plug my book, "Elysian Place, a Family Renovation". It gets into some of this.
I am talking about using the medieval craft guild as a guide to a socio-economic structure for extremely productive home based businesses using stuff like CNC machines. We no longer need economies of scale to do large scale production but with individual craft design with 3D printers, laser cutters, CNC routers, etc.
Well, yes I did read the article. Instead of blaming me for whatever it is you are blaming me for, how about considering what I said, and comment on that? I have a lifetime of experience in the skilled trades and am intimately familiar with all production techniques, including CNC. And you can not do large scale production with 3D printers. They have their place, but they are S-L-O-W.
Well maybe people need less stuff of a higher quality then, that would be good for both our psyches and the planet. We are literally living in hell now in terms of everything from social relations to architecture in it's is sheer ugliness. The ugliness must end if we are to retain our humanity.
No argument from me about the ugly architecture. And maybe that's a reflection on the nature of some people.
I don't know if you follow Andrew Klavan, but he just did a podcast contrasting Michaelangelo and Jackson Pollack. He said that the beauty of Michaelangelo was appropriate for his time, and the confused mess of a Pollack painting is appropriate for our time.
I'm not so naive as to think everyone got along just fine back 'in the old days'. The twentieth century was by far the deadliest century in human history. But we are floundering around now with no sense of direction.
Well that was part of my the purpose of my essay is to suggest craft guilds as a bottom up decentralized counter-institution to our top down dying institutions.
Great observations. I do think that appreciation of art is something that must be learned. Even the beauty of nature escapers some people's notice and concern. I know that my appreciation of art is something that I've developed over time. It's not an inherent ability.
I am far more a writer than a painter. I've learned from others. I've learned from writers who are artists, skilled at playing to emotions and perceptions. And I've learned from writers who are technicians, skilled at getting people to accept inuendo as truth. Probably, great writers can do both. But just as writing is a skill, reading is a skill. Being able to distinguish one writer's techniques from another's, and recognizing the difference between propaganda and argument, are just two examples. Visual art is similar. It's good to be able to see, not just what was painted, but WHY it was painted.
No, this cannot be revived as a form against capital, because capital grew out of competition within guilds, becoming factories. It’s the law of value demanding better production methods, and eventually merchant capital took over factories and produced products made only for sale and there’s the firm. The Renaissance was a wrong turn for other reasons, but not this one!
This presumes that the goal of society is maximizing low quality high output commodity production. But how has that worked out for us? Are most Americans happy? Are they healthy? Are they spiritually fulfilled? Do we live in a society that has domestic social tranquility? Do we have peace with other nations?
I would argue no to all of the above. So maybe it's time to re-calibrate the end goals of life beyond who has the biggest pile of Chinese made crap wins?
Oh, we violently agree on the disaster of capitalism. But your article is suggesting that guilds today could help us fight capitalism. That is not true, because they don’t do anything to abolish value.
BTW I am not really into "fighting capitalism," I am not a Marxist, I am into people realizing that the current system isn't leading to human thriving and simply walking away and doing their own ventures that aren't reliant on either usury capital or top down state power.
If you’re not into fighting capitalism, all your words are wasted. That’s the name of the current system of exploitation. Any remedies have to deal with stopping trading time for money: that is the law of value.
Oh please can you give me even one example where Communism in practice hasn't been far worse than even our current dystopia? The people of the Soviet Union suffered from both a low standard of living and high levels of ecological damage. Look up what happened to Lake Baikal if you don't believe me.
I've been thinking along the same lines for a while. The guild system needs its reputation rehabilitated. Mercantilist propaganda about it has been left to stand too long.
Remnants of it still exist in the modern trades, e.g. electricians. But most artisans work independently or as wagies now, and unions in general are at best a bastardized version with some of the form and none of the function.
The biggest obstacle is anti-trust laws and corporate regulation more broadly, which in typical government fashion seem to accomplish the opposite of their stated intent, incentivising monopoly while undermining both quality and working conditions.
This just blows me away-it echoes the concepts of the counter-cultural movement and the craftsman concept. I only knew I embraced such things when I was young but did not know the historical reference. I am pretty overwhelmed with this piece and feel it sparks the divine nature within us that can cause a grass-roots movement that will be multi-generational. Encore!
It seems to go in cycles there was a craft movement in the early 1900s
https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/acam/hd_acam.htm
This faded out in the era between WWI and the 1950s aftermath of WWII which was an era of biggism and the establishment man. It was reborn again in the late 60s through early 80s in the hippy arts and crafts and back to the land movement, which my parents were a part of. They made a good living in that era selling jewelry at arts and crafts festivals. The 80s through roughly now have been another era of the establishment being in control of culture, biggism and artificiality. I am hoping we are in the dawn of another decentralized anti-establishment crafting era with the rise of cheap CNC machines, laser cutters, etc.
Interestingly too, the establishment biggism based eras also seem to have militarism and more of a law and order attitude, where as the anti-establishment crafting eras are more peaceful and less authoritarian.
I figured your parents were my generation. Yes it goes in waves and I am always excited to see the movement being taken up again and moving it a little more down the road to a new society.
I really appreciated your post. There is so much to think about and future projections to make. I have always made things by hand with what I hope is the highest level of quality and beauty as the goal. My guild master was my grandmother, who trained me for years. My father also did the same thing in different arts. It was fabulous, and so I shared the skills with others who had the inclination.
There seems to be a growing hunger for both this path to excellence and the products produced. Guilds would provide a formalized path to survival, advancement and security.
The rise of the Merchant Princes as the blueprint for bottom line obsessed monopolies presaged our modern day Robber Barons. When you own the banks, transportation, manufacturing, and distribution of all or a majority of the elements in many industries you have the power to change everything you want. It was an ugly, murderous time, in many senses it is worse now. Apathy and disdain for the people versus hatred; a burning need for control and subjugation.
It is unsurprising that the flood of materials from other countries produced such awe inspiring art and development. Guilds could take advantage of this modern phenomenon as well with both hand and technical means.
You have inspired me to think about this excellent path to both reviving art and beauty for its’ own sake, but giving young people a solid path forward. Bravo!
Capitalism & Socialism, as pointed out, both end in impoverishment of the many by the few. Guilds strike a balance in favour of healthy protectionism, against destructive race-to-the-bottom capitalism. Yes, Guilds can be 'closed shops' and encourage nepotism but what's wrong with son following father? Done on a local village/town basis, Guilds make for a more equitable society. Some entrepreneurship might be 'stifled' but so what? It's always a balance. Here in Portugal, some businesses (eg: delivering gas bottles) are done by local licencing. Everyone makes a living and has time to sit in a café and drink coffee.
You get it!
https://www.utoledo.edu/library/canaday/exhibits/artsandcrafts/roots.html#:~:text=But%20in%20all%20of%20his,hence%20society%20would%20be%20improved.
The Arts and Crafts Movement began in England in the 1860s as a reform movement. Its primary proponents were John Ruskin (1819-1900) and William Morris who is pictured at right (1834-1896). Ruskin, its philosophical leader, was the most influential of all Victorian writers on the arts and a member of the Pre-Raphaelite movement. The Pre-Raphaelites believed the medieval world was purer in form than the post-Renaissance world because it was more closely tied to nature. Ruskin's book The Stones of Venice (1853) had a great impact on the intellectuals of Victorian England. In it, he made a direct connection between art, nature, and morality-good moral art was nature expressed through man.
Continuing this connection, Ruskin believed the decorative arts affected the men who produced them. The machine dehumanized the worker and led to a loss of dignity because it removed him from the artistic process and thus, nature itself. As Ruskin stated, "all cast from the machine is bad, as work it is dishonest."
While Ruskin built the philosophical foundation of the Arts and Crafts Movement, it was William Morris who became its leader. Morris took Ruskin's ideas about nature, art, morality, and the degradation of human labor and translated them into a unified theory of design. By doing so, Morris successfully wedded aesthetics and social reform into the Arts and Crafts Movement.
Morris was appalled by the over-the-top ornamentation of Victorian design, especially its eclectic mix of styles. He was particularly disturbed by decorative arts produced by machines in mass quantity with no function but to decorate. This manufactured look was epitomized by furniture design known as "Eastlake." Charles Eastlake's name became synonymous with furnishings that copied ornate designs of earlier periods, but which were actually produced cheaply by machines. Eastlake himself was a reformer, advocating in his work Hints on Household Taste (1868) for a lighter form of decorative arts. Unfortunately, his name was forever tied to some of the worst examples of machined Victorian design.
Like Ruskin, Morris had a deep affection for the Middle Ages, especially the medieval idea of craftsmens' guilds. Along with architect Philip Webb, painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and others, he founded Morris & Co. in 1875. The guild was to create simple furniture, stained glass, and even wallpaper that united beauty, craftsmanship, and utility. He also founded the Kelmscott Press, a small book printing and binding company that became known for its outstanding examples of the book arts. He used the press to publish many of his own writings, thereby promoting the Arts and Crafts movement in both the content and style of the books.
But in all of his works, Morris believed that the Arts and Crafts Movement was much more than just a design theory. If the quality of design was improved, the character of the individual producing that design would be improved, and hence society would be improved. Here, Morris was clearly influenced by socialism. He observed the terrible working conditions of the factories, their environmental consequences on the surrounding countryside, and the exploitation of cheap labor that led to shoddy products. He believed society would be vastly improved by a return to the pre-industrial revolution days where craftsmen were both the designers and the manufacturers of products. Succinctly put, Morris sought to reunite "head and hand."
Morris was not wholly successful in translating the Arts and Crafts philosophy into a practical application. One of the most difficult obstacles was how to produce beautiful handcrafted items that could be affordable to the working classes. He never successfully overcame this problem, and most British Arts and Crafts items remained the luxury of the upper classes. But despite this, the Arts and Crafts movement swept England. Morris's disciples like C.R. Ashbee, Baillie Scott, and C.F.A. Voysey helped to form Arts and Crafts associations. Beginning in the 1880s, major exhibitions of materials identified as "Arts and Crafts" were held.
Perfect response, thanks so much, I will restack this.
I have long been fond of Carlyle, Ruskin, Morris, Geddes, Mumford but Morris especially. How sad indeed that modern elites embrace the polar negative.
Indeed.
just yesterday i had a conversation about the best way to compensate artists. the other person favored *wage for labor* and my response to that is “we make THINGS tho.” i actually don’t want to be compensated for my labor b/c 1) there’s no way to estimate the cost involved for a lifetime of education/experience, materials + concept/creativity/craftsmanship, and 2) the point of my own art is to NOT be in a labor relationship. i just want to make stuff. plus, i’m already labor-compensated as a commercial artist and hate it.
i’ve always thought we took a wrong turn away from guilds. if commercial artists were guilded (is that a word?) i think we’d live much better lives (more power, more respect, more autonomy, etc etc).
Wage slavery is the enemy. It is always a-prori soul deadening. Working for yourself is the future IMO.
YES. thank you! i’m about sick to death of the young left whippersnappers who insist that small biz owners are capitalist owning class—as if opening tattoo joint makes you a DuPont 😝
They are radical in nothing but their ignorance. For all their supposed radical communism most of them have never even read Marx, or if they did they didn't understand it.
This is brilliant. I’m really trying to get my kids to open their minds to the trades because of the lifestyle it offers. The apprenticeship programs can walk any one from unskilled to master electrician. Imagine reframing an entire economy this way. The guilds could give a ladder of excellence as you progress and get better at your trade. This would be a great way to merge technology and labor in a way that gives satisfaction to your life.
Yes it has the flexibility and sense of ownership and accomplishment that is fostered by capitalism, while eliminating the usury, rent seeking and corporatism that makes modern crony late capitalist corporatist societies so tedious
Everything should be beautiful or functional. I have always wanted to cobble shoes, make a coat, construct a chair. This will be my project 2025
Great plan, making an idea real is so satisfying. That is why I need to do the paper cuts and music to do something real with my hands that has an end product other than ideas. I mean ideas are important, but doing like you are proposing is so much satisfying.
Just to push back against Radical Individualist's old comments - yes, the best of the master's, the the large cities, worked for the rich. But the journeymen were named journeymen for a reason - they journeyed. They went from town to town, city to city, to learn new styles other than their master's. They also, if they never achieved a master position, would settle in a town and be that town's main smith, or carpenter, or mason, etc. Or might be a city's lower end skill. The same for apprentices. The failed apprentice smith might still be good enough to bang together some horse shoes, repair a plow, etc at some po-dunk town where the guild doesn't care to enforce rules, as a side gig to his farming.
In the same manner, our new Polities and guilds can function the same way with a guild system, should we want them to. A standardized level of craftmanship, with those skills being transferred between polities by the individuals - is completely doable. Both within the traditional skilled trades, as well as those that you mention, such as CNC. A transfer and organization of labor such as this, between guilds, would be much more likely to be beneficially ran than at the state level. For they would know not just the needs of the laborers within their polity, but also the available pool and practices within neighboring polities as well.
It could be helpful, and an exception, if the government was planning large works or things necessary for the good of the state/people; and the guild was acting maliciously as we sometimes see in our unions. Then there obviously has to be some back and forth.
Anyways, it's definitely good food for thought. Oh, and I'll point out that the time line is interesting; as the paganization of Christendom in art and culture happens at the same time.
Good comment, thanks.
Yes, exactly. I was aware of the Medicis and have a cursory knowledge of their shady dealing together with the Jews. If I'm not mistaken the symbol displayed at all pawn shops originated with them, the scales, three circles and the upside down w thing that holds them.
Economic ideas and advanced mathematics gives me like a number dyslexia, my mind freezes and it's almost as if the numbers & symbols are not there, been that way my whole life. History, especially military history is my strength, but my econ knowledge is coming along the more this rotten system falls away to reveal the truth. If only I was in my twenties again.
The parallel society appears to be the path of implementation of what you've expounded on here. I have tried to persuade others who share these ideas but usually always get the Fuck it Walmart is cheaper, I love Amazon. One that I told that porn was a tool of the CIA and other globalist entities to keep you distracted, stupid, constantly pushing endorphins to cause you health problems said Fuck it I love the CIA and dismissed the endorphins theory as crackpot. Admittedly it could be but being diagnosed with cancer has led me to research that lends credence to it. He knows the government is rotten to the core and we're in a pivotal time. But the fact that he was unwilling to even consider that stunned me, maybe it should include UFO/UAP theory also
Thank you for forwarding this to me, it makes total sense and gives me a foundation to begin to speak intelligently regarding econ theory without so many gaps and gaffes. Have a great day.
Definitely gonna read this in more detail later!!
I am now retired from a career as an architectural woodworker. Let me offer a few thoughts.
The Medicis lived before the industrial revolution. Guilds didn't just represent the ultimate in skill and ability, they were also the ultimate in productivity. Only the wealthy could afford skillfully made furniture. The 99% made do with whatever pieces of wood they could cobble together to make tables and chairs. Of course, the same goes for the art of the time. Michaelangelo, Caravaggio, etc. didn't create art for 'normal' people. They created art for rich people.
It was the industrial revolution, that began between one and two centuries after the Medici's, that created massive amounts of goods efficiently such that the average person could afford to buy them. It largely started with textiles, and then transportation, and then food production, then furniture and housing. Of course, energy production, largely via the steam engine was a backbone to all of this.
We have a romantic notion of craftsmen hand-making their goods. Frankly, I too have that notion, even though I know better. Professionally, I did what I could to blend classical design and esthetics with modern production techniques. I want nothing to do with Ikea on the one hand, but on the other hand I don't want to do my work entirely by hand, with no modern machinery.
Technology is changing so fast that each generation experiences a whole new set of parameters relative to the previous one. That is unsettling, but it's reality. A compromise is to buy the manufactured stuff that allows us the comfortable life that we have, but also buy special, handmade items that fulfil our need for a connection both to our esthetic selves and to the past.
And now I'll plug my book, "Elysian Place, a Family Renovation". It gets into some of this.
https://www.amazon.com/Elysian-Place-Family-Renovation-Kussmaul/dp/B0BW2RY6GS/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2388D5S40HRSR&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.8CZvoJqb-qtCk4rfFeNdWw.CrZMO_qtY5k9zm5dOj0N4ci4Txn_VK06D0jYIWHE2f8&dib_tag=se&keywords=elysian+place+a+family+renovation&qid=1715609796&sprefix=elysian+place+a+family+renovation%2Caps%2C142&sr=8-1
You didn’t read the article did you?
I am talking about using the medieval craft guild as a guide to a socio-economic structure for extremely productive home based businesses using stuff like CNC machines. We no longer need economies of scale to do large scale production but with individual craft design with 3D printers, laser cutters, CNC routers, etc.
Well, yes I did read the article. Instead of blaming me for whatever it is you are blaming me for, how about considering what I said, and comment on that? I have a lifetime of experience in the skilled trades and am intimately familiar with all production techniques, including CNC. And you can not do large scale production with 3D printers. They have their place, but they are S-L-O-W.
Well maybe people need less stuff of a higher quality then, that would be good for both our psyches and the planet. We are literally living in hell now in terms of everything from social relations to architecture in it's is sheer ugliness. The ugliness must end if we are to retain our humanity.
No argument from me about the ugly architecture. And maybe that's a reflection on the nature of some people.
I don't know if you follow Andrew Klavan, but he just did a podcast contrasting Michaelangelo and Jackson Pollack. He said that the beauty of Michaelangelo was appropriate for his time, and the confused mess of a Pollack painting is appropriate for our time.
I'm not so naive as to think everyone got along just fine back 'in the old days'. The twentieth century was by far the deadliest century in human history. But we are floundering around now with no sense of direction.
Well that was part of my the purpose of my essay is to suggest craft guilds as a bottom up decentralized counter-institution to our top down dying institutions.
You might find this interesting.
https://whispertrees.substack.com/p/beyond-the-current-western-culture
Great observations. I do think that appreciation of art is something that must be learned. Even the beauty of nature escapers some people's notice and concern. I know that my appreciation of art is something that I've developed over time. It's not an inherent ability.
I am far more a writer than a painter. I've learned from others. I've learned from writers who are artists, skilled at playing to emotions and perceptions. And I've learned from writers who are technicians, skilled at getting people to accept inuendo as truth. Probably, great writers can do both. But just as writing is a skill, reading is a skill. Being able to distinguish one writer's techniques from another's, and recognizing the difference between propaganda and argument, are just two examples. Visual art is similar. It's good to be able to see, not just what was painted, but WHY it was painted.
No, this cannot be revived as a form against capital, because capital grew out of competition within guilds, becoming factories. It’s the law of value demanding better production methods, and eventually merchant capital took over factories and produced products made only for sale and there’s the firm. The Renaissance was a wrong turn for other reasons, but not this one!
This presumes that the goal of society is maximizing low quality high output commodity production. But how has that worked out for us? Are most Americans happy? Are they healthy? Are they spiritually fulfilled? Do we live in a society that has domestic social tranquility? Do we have peace with other nations?
I would argue no to all of the above. So maybe it's time to re-calibrate the end goals of life beyond who has the biggest pile of Chinese made crap wins?
Oh, we violently agree on the disaster of capitalism. But your article is suggesting that guilds today could help us fight capitalism. That is not true, because they don’t do anything to abolish value.
"they don’t do anything to abolish value"
What does that even mean?
BTW I am not really into "fighting capitalism," I am not a Marxist, I am into people realizing that the current system isn't leading to human thriving and simply walking away and doing their own ventures that aren't reliant on either usury capital or top down state power.
If you’re not into fighting capitalism, all your words are wasted. That’s the name of the current system of exploitation. Any remedies have to deal with stopping trading time for money: that is the law of value.
Oh please can you give me even one example where Communism in practice hasn't been far worse than even our current dystopia? The people of the Soviet Union suffered from both a low standard of living and high levels of ecological damage. Look up what happened to Lake Baikal if you don't believe me.
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And who exactly controls “money,” be specific naming their origin.
No it doesn't. Hint they are an ethnic group whose name begins with J and who have controlled the global financial system for centuries.
You say it’s “repressive” but you don’t name how it’s repressive thus you are engaging in mere unsubstantiated slander.
Again you fail to define "repressive," if it's so repressive describe why it's repressive?