Pop Your Blue Collar: The Case For Working With Your Hands

New York Times Magazine:

The television show "Deadliest Catch" depicts commercial crab fishermen in the Bering Sea. Another, "Dirty Jobs," shows all kinds of grueling work; one episode featured a guy who inseminates turkeys for a living. The weird fascination of these shows must lie partly in the fact that such confrontations with material reality have become exotically unfamiliar. Many of us do work that feels more surreal than real. Working in an office, you often find it difficult to see any tangible result from your efforts. What exactly have you accomplished at the end of any given day? Where the chain of cause and effect is opaque and responsibility diffuse, the experience of individual agency can be elusive. "Dilbert," "The Office" and similar portrayals of cubicle life attest to the dark absurdism with which many Americans have come to view their white-collar jobs. Is there a more "real" alternative (short of inseminating turkeys)?

High-school shop-class programs were widely dismantled in the 1990s as educators prepared students to become "knowledge workers." The imperative of the last 20 years to round up every warm body and send it to college, then to the cubicle, was tied to a vision of the future in which we somehow take leave of material reality and glide about in a pure information economy. This has not come to pass. To begin with, such work often feels more enervating than gliding. More fundamentally, now as ever, somebody has to actually do things: fix our cars, unclog our toilets, build our houses.

Read the whole story: New York Times Magazine

Comments

[kittyarmy]

I have a college degree and have a desk job at a newspaper. My friends who have no degree but have union jobs - drywall installer, plumber, carpenter - all make way more than me. I never understand people who look down on blue collar worker. Even apart from the skilled tradesmen like plumber & carpenter, the so-called "unskilled workers" such as housekeeping staff & fruit pickers, they all perform necessary services and should have equal place in society.

[KenGirard]

I spend all day working by sitting at a computer. For the most part it is mindless work.
At the end of the day there is nothing to show for it, and no proof that the world is better due to what I did, just more work for me to do the next day.
But when I go out and work on building my booth out at the St. Louis Ren Faire... At the end of the day there is something that will stand for years to come, and gets praise from others.

Given a choice I'd rather work with my hands.

[betweenextremes]

My husband is one of those guys who hated school and opted to learn a trade instead. The decision has served him well. Not only has he never been laid off, but he makes a very good living, earns great benefits, and he can fix or build anything. That alone is a very sexy quality.

I work in an academic setting and understand the value of a good college education, but my advice to parents is to know your child and explore all options.

[jmpurser]

I met three contended men who seemed to be quite happy with their day to day activities. One delivered a load of mulch for me, one is my postman, and one is the contractor we're hiring to do some work on our house.

They all seem to be much happier than the office people I know.

[nicoled]

"Yet work forms us, and deforms us, with broad public consequenc­es." That line is so true. I enjoyed reading this article and it really made me think. It's also very relevant for me right now. I am one of the college-educated unemployed masses. People sometimes question why don't you have a job, you're smart, have great references, even the right look. They assume I must not be trying hard enough but Mr. Crawford raises a good point

" A good job requires a field of action where you can put your best capacities to work and see an effect in the world. Academic credentials do not guarantee this."

[SangZe]

Years ago, schools offered courses in "shop." Every boy, and the few girls willing to join them, no matter where they were ultimately headed, knew how to use all of the basic tools of carpentry, masonry, plumbing, wiring, furniture-making, and sheet-metal work. I still have a tray in which the signatures of most of my classmates are forever etched. Work in the "trades" was as honorable as work in an office, and work in an office was equally respected.

[JDSalinger12]

There is definite value in doing manual labor. It is a shame it gets such a negative rep. Working with your hands has many benefits: physical workout, closeness to materials, working outdoors many times, greater feeling of accomplishment, etc. I also think it helps the mind in a lot of ways by focusing your attention more on the task at hand.

Best,
Brian Jones
http://www.braintraininggames.net/Brain-Training-Games/Lumosity-Games.html

[takingbkourcountry]

What the educational system failed to realize was that not every body is suited for a clerical position.
Many are MUCH happier working and creating with their hands . Some are not (gasp) suited for the service industries as well.

[TakeSake]

About 20 years ago my neighbor came over and said, "Hey! Do you want a motorcycle?" To which I said sure.

So we brought his motorcycle over. A frame. Two wheels. An engine. A couple boxes of parts... and the factory manual. It had been a Honda SL 350.

I took it down to the basement and over the course of a year I put back together what was there, replaced a few worn out parts, and replaced the part the somewhat took it out of commission: the timing chain. That required near total disassembly of it.

Eventually it was back together and time to take it upstairs - that was interesting.

Anyway, the screw plating seems to have a galvanic reaction with the aluminum - which can really lock it in. Here are the different methods I used to get the stuck screws out:

1) Use screwdriver. Be careful - the steel is relatively soft.

2) With a screwdriver like the old style Craftsman kind with the 6-sided handle, tighten a crescent wrench on to the handle. Make sure the screwdriver is square with the screw, press in to prevent slippage, and turn the screwdriver with the crescent wrench for extra torque.

3) If the head is ground out and you can access it, use a vise grip on the head.

4) If the head gets torn out or can't be accessed, use a nice, sharp screw remover.

When putting it back together I used socket-head cap screws.

[kitkatborn]

My grandfather was a union carpenter back in the days when workers were struggling for survival. He had to know how to read a blueprint as part of his training. He was very active in the labor movement & came from a very intellectual family. Two of his sisters were teachers & never married. He helped my parents build their house by coming over after work & laying the next days work out for my Dad. My dad always said he learned more from him than he did from his own dad. Pappap died when I was too young to know him & I've always wished I could have..

[dadw5boys]

Many a great Doctor, Surgeon, and Scientist started out working on engines, as plumbers and welders.

Ask any college President who comes back and build the building for the colleges.

It is the working guy who moved up from labor !!!!! Usually a "C" student at that.

.

[marijam]

A plumber to fix your toilet, or somebody to clean the leaves out of your gutters, or change your oil, or fix the faulty wiring in your house cannot be off-shored. These things don't depend on living in a big city, or in a particular state, or working for somebody that might lay you off, since you can work for yourself.

[odyssey58]

Great article. My son is about to graduate from high school. Although he is very bright and attends a school near a well-respected university, he is not going to college. He would rather work with his hands. He loves to tinker with engines. He makes biodiesel for his truck. He sells barrels and has earned enough money to buy a trailer to deliver them. He's not afraid to work hard and get dirty. Everyone he's ever worked with is impressed by his work ethic.
He wasn't raised with cable TV. He called his play "work." We bought him power tools instead of video games. I am very proud of him and I don't worry about him "making it" in the world.
When he decides to continue his education there is an excellent technical college near us that I have encouraged hom to consider.

[marijam]

We need a lot more like him. He'll always be self-reliant and that's a very good thing. Now if only auto manufacturers would start making more clean diesel vehicles and if only every community would start making bio-diesel out of the stuff they're putting into the garbage dumps now. Really, there's no reason to throw anything away.

[noaxe397]

There was a brief period, right after the 9/11 attacks, when blue collar was hip again. Remember the pictures of people cheering and waving to truck drivers, steel workers, heavy equipment operators, for doing the grunt work of cleaning up and sorting out that disaster. Suddenly we realized people who do stuff with their hands are very important to the national psyche and security.

Fast forward to today. Now, it's all labor's fault. People who labor are chumps and suckers; they are losers because they can't make money with money. And they whine all the time about pay and benefits.
To listen to the investor class, you would think the UAW was causing the end of western civilization.

I think there are many in this country who fear working people because they can better fend for themselves, are more independent and self reliant and therefore less easy to control.

[marijam]

Absolutely!

[Chaucea]

Fantastic article! Read it, y 'all!! :-)