For Love of Craft, For Love of Self, or For Love of Money?

People talk about tradition, economy and institutions like they are written in blood, a deal with the devil. Or written in concrete. Unable to be changed, shy of war or bomb blast.

People talk about a free market, like it’s something that must be done. Items must be made, people must be employed, fads must be kept up, and we all must keep up with the Jones’. Convenience more critical than excellence. While the oceans fill with plastic and chemicals. While children starve to death every day.

Yes those things are somewhat important, but you’d think we’d review when garbage heaps turn into villages of people scavenging for a few coin so they can eat today.

And yes they’re important, until we realize that the system we value so highly is turning out more bigots and predators than giving people an income they can subsist on. And it costs more to respond with police to what goes on than it does to provide for people’s needs in the first place. Compassion comes at a premium.

And as the next few decades roll by, and the world gets hotter, as food and clean water get scarcer, as more pandemics roll over us, will we change our minds?

Or is the same old thing worth humanity being the last mass extinction? Would we literally rather die than change?

It’s human nature, you say.

It’s the way it’s always been done.