Politics: We don’t work with our hands, so we watch it on TV instead
- 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.
- Matthew B. Crawford • In a lengthy essay on the evolution of American society from blue-collar to white-collar, adapted from his book “Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work.” As a result, we’ll watch TV shows such as “Dirty Jobs” with reverence because it’s become more adventurous since the average person doesn’t do that kind of work anymore. Part of this Crawford blames on the decline of manual labor education such as shop class and the increase in office jobs. • source