What Does it all Mean anyway??
Isn't that the question that we have been asking ourselves for over 13,ooo years??
Truth.
But the question that we have been asking ourselves here in the Offices of the Home Store are more specific like:
1) Why in America, a land of astronomical surpluses are we exporting cheap designs to factories in 3rd world countries only to have those goods sold back to Us, the People at morbidly obese prices, and to have these objects quickly deteriorate while We break our backs throwing out lives away in Indentured Servitude so that we can afford these cheap products that quickly break and then are thrown into great heaps where the raw materials (From our mines) is exported onto the polluted sea shores of 3rd world countries and is upcycled into more of those terrible products to just sell back to Us at even greater prices??!
Do we really care about Our Children??
If so, why are We raising them to be automatons? Why are we feeding them poisons and toxins and offering them glitzy-glam toys when really want they want to do is cut 2 arm holes and 1 head hole in a cardboard box and be a Robot?
IS THERE ANOTHER WAY??
Is there a way out of this mad machine?? Raising up our Children, making them Ripe for The Kirkbride Plan?
We think so. We think it is way more easier, less costly, more beneficial to society and the health of the family to offer items that are designed and manufactured (in the highest quality. See: Wiener Werkstatte "Better 1 good object in 1o days than 1o mediocre objects in 1 day") by skilled collaborators (trained within our community if necessary) who receive high wages and other benefits, and created using repurposed and upcycled materials as often as possible.
Wholism.
We cannot imagine living in a great heap of a McMansion held up by the backs of vast hordes of plebians who are churned out in our mills much more than brocade.
And how can the great robber barons ?? We think they must be terribly unhappy, miserable people. Who never spent a minute reading Emerson, The Bhagavad Gita, or Lao Tzu. In Short, they are more dead than alive. And in their misery, all they can know is the continuation of their avarice.
But I imagine many avaricious self-made rich people die old and used up.
Except for brave alternatives like Elon Musk, and Richard Branson. WHo like a fine wine...
Because they care about other people and their world and the advancement of the Arts and sciences and not just themselves! Imagine that! SCANDALOUS!
Many people say that the arts and crafts movement failed because the Arts and Crafts (And Wiener Werkstatte's and Bauhaus's) failed to live up to their mission of creating high quality objects in enough of a quantity and with prices that the everyman could afford.
BUllSHIT. that is the claptrap of jealous little minds who couldn't conceive of how something like these visions could function so well for so long.
The Real cause of these movements ends, (if they ever really ended) was not because of economical concerns. But because of concerns of leadership. Where leadership went astray, or where partnerships went awry and fractious...or in the case of The Bauhaus, where the Nazis broke down your door step...is where the movement faltered.
Fractious. Depleted Energies. Misguided intentions. But stilll...
Sign Posts on The Way to Utopia....
Isn't that the question that we have been asking ourselves for over 13,ooo years??
Truth.
But the question that we have been asking ourselves here in the Offices of the Home Store are more specific like:
1) Why in America, a land of astronomical surpluses are we exporting cheap designs to factories in 3rd world countries only to have those goods sold back to Us, the People at morbidly obese prices, and to have these objects quickly deteriorate while We break our backs throwing out lives away in Indentured Servitude so that we can afford these cheap products that quickly break and then are thrown into great heaps where the raw materials (From our mines) is exported onto the polluted sea shores of 3rd world countries and is upcycled into more of those terrible products to just sell back to Us at even greater prices??!
Do we really care about Our Children??
If so, why are We raising them to be automatons? Why are we feeding them poisons and toxins and offering them glitzy-glam toys when really want they want to do is cut 2 arm holes and 1 head hole in a cardboard box and be a Robot?
IS THERE ANOTHER WAY??
Is there a way out of this mad machine?? Raising up our Children, making them Ripe for The Kirkbride Plan?
We think so. We think it is way more easier, less costly, more beneficial to society and the health of the family to offer items that are designed and manufactured (in the highest quality. See: Wiener Werkstatte "Better 1 good object in 1o days than 1o mediocre objects in 1 day") by skilled collaborators (trained within our community if necessary) who receive high wages and other benefits, and created using repurposed and upcycled materials as often as possible.
Wholism.
We cannot imagine living in a great heap of a McMansion held up by the backs of vast hordes of plebians who are churned out in our mills much more than brocade.
And how can the great robber barons ?? We think they must be terribly unhappy, miserable people. Who never spent a minute reading Emerson, The Bhagavad Gita, or Lao Tzu. In Short, they are more dead than alive. And in their misery, all they can know is the continuation of their avarice.
But I imagine many avaricious self-made rich people die old and used up.
Except for brave alternatives like Elon Musk, and Richard Branson. WHo like a fine wine...
Because they care about other people and their world and the advancement of the Arts and sciences and not just themselves! Imagine that! SCANDALOUS!
Many people say that the arts and crafts movement failed because the Arts and Crafts (And Wiener Werkstatte's and Bauhaus's) failed to live up to their mission of creating high quality objects in enough of a quantity and with prices that the everyman could afford.
BUllSHIT. that is the claptrap of jealous little minds who couldn't conceive of how something like these visions could function so well for so long.
The Real cause of these movements ends, (if they ever really ended) was not because of economical concerns. But because of concerns of leadership. Where leadership went astray, or where partnerships went awry and fractious...or in the case of The Bauhaus, where the Nazis broke down your door step...is where the movement faltered.
Fractious. Depleted Energies. Misguided intentions. But stilll...
Sign Posts on The Way to Utopia....
But How, or How to Get there??
1) Get the idea of "Garbage" out of your head. There is no such thing as garbage. there is only raw materials and resources. After all everything that we interact with on a daily basis is fashioned from those same materials. Raw materials. Every manufactured object can be broken down into its constituents parts and reformed into something afresh. -Or- that object can be repurposed (see: upcycled) by alteration into something new and improved, containing the history and Aura of what came before.
2) Rising tides raise all boats. When you make money, be sensible yes. Take care of your needs, play, have a savings, pay your debts and bills and but spread it around as much as possible. Pay your collaborators the highest possible wages that you can afford and keep the ship from running aground and have a little bit where you can treat yourself for the incredible burden of keeping the whole heap on course and moving forward. Buy them meals. Pay for their transportation costs. Send holiday gifts and little tokens for them and their family's...Your all in this tub together...and your employees spend more time with you than their partner and kids...ought not there be some special commitment in that relationship schema?
3)Create Aethernet and Bricks-N-Mortar Venues as retail outposts to proffer your wares. Deny exclusivity in favor or plurality...WHy not a high art gallery , crafts, an antique store, science museum and a coffeeshop all under the same roof?? Why not. WHo every made these dumb rules anyhow??
4)Use surpluses to innovate, expand, reward your collaborators (which will also encourage them to serve you and the vision even more), and invest in the local infrastructure. Especially struggling non profits (theaters, greenway levy's, jail reforms, museums, cooperative art galleries, elementary school pushes) that will simply sink because they aren't receiving revenue from other sources. Those investments will pay off in more ways than just because you did the right thing. Which is enough, but of course - -- but those investments will reward you 10 fold in creating allies, gaining customers, building bridges between different circles that will come to serve you at some future time, and you will be able to continue to serve them -
Through this you begin to chink in the spaces in the foundation wall. Truly beginning to build a house on the rock. Rather than a big huge McDonald's with 323,995,528 ignorant, illiterate plebes of customers sharting out babies left and right (Because they don't know what else to do with their lives, there just aren't any other options around here...) built on a huge gaping quicksand pit full of bullshit...
Peace&Love Co.
-KOdy John Bosch
The Roxbury Home Store
1) Get the idea of "Garbage" out of your head. There is no such thing as garbage. there is only raw materials and resources. After all everything that we interact with on a daily basis is fashioned from those same materials. Raw materials. Every manufactured object can be broken down into its constituents parts and reformed into something afresh. -Or- that object can be repurposed (see: upcycled) by alteration into something new and improved, containing the history and Aura of what came before.
2) Rising tides raise all boats. When you make money, be sensible yes. Take care of your needs, play, have a savings, pay your debts and bills and but spread it around as much as possible. Pay your collaborators the highest possible wages that you can afford and keep the ship from running aground and have a little bit where you can treat yourself for the incredible burden of keeping the whole heap on course and moving forward. Buy them meals. Pay for their transportation costs. Send holiday gifts and little tokens for them and their family's...Your all in this tub together...and your employees spend more time with you than their partner and kids...ought not there be some special commitment in that relationship schema?
3)Create Aethernet and Bricks-N-Mortar Venues as retail outposts to proffer your wares. Deny exclusivity in favor or plurality...WHy not a high art gallery , crafts, an antique store, science museum and a coffeeshop all under the same roof?? Why not. WHo every made these dumb rules anyhow??
4)Use surpluses to innovate, expand, reward your collaborators (which will also encourage them to serve you and the vision even more), and invest in the local infrastructure. Especially struggling non profits (theaters, greenway levy's, jail reforms, museums, cooperative art galleries, elementary school pushes) that will simply sink because they aren't receiving revenue from other sources. Those investments will pay off in more ways than just because you did the right thing. Which is enough, but of course - -- but those investments will reward you 10 fold in creating allies, gaining customers, building bridges between different circles that will come to serve you at some future time, and you will be able to continue to serve them -
Through this you begin to chink in the spaces in the foundation wall. Truly beginning to build a house on the rock. Rather than a big huge McDonald's with 323,995,528 ignorant, illiterate plebes of customers sharting out babies left and right (Because they don't know what else to do with their lives, there just aren't any other options around here...) built on a huge gaping quicksand pit full of bullshit...
Peace&Love Co.
-KOdy John Bosch
The Roxbury Home Store