23 Sep
2011
23 Sep
'11
1:06 a.m.
> More than that, those were built at a time when
people valued quality,
> and rejected cheap junk, because the mentality was to do things right and make
> them to last. The obsession with "new" overshadowed that and now new is
> more important than anything else.
The American mentality: If it's old, it's
bad, and if it's not new, it's old.
Frankly, it's embarrassing!
It is embarrassing but I don't think it's American. I've seen other places
where newitis is a lot worse than I ever saw it in America.
All the people I hang out with feel the same way I do and you do about
this. I was raised to believe in making or buying the best quality stuff I
could and to keep it in good condition, not to get into the false economy of
buying cheap junk and replacing it constantly. Waste not want not. But it's
not just economics, it's about the instrinsic value of quality. Quality
matters and junk is offensive. I always went for hand built stuff and did
my own work on whatever I had. Things have changed a lot in the past twenty
years. It's hard to know what "American" means now, but I do know what it
used to mean and I still appreciate people who have those values, even
though they're not very popular any more.