Master CraftsMon - Aired Monday, January 2, 2006 at about 11pm CST - Segment 4
Master CraftsMon - Aired Monday, January 2, 2006 at about 11pm CST
Segment 4
We go back a track on Stan Swiniarski's album, Mexico.
That was Overnight Sensation. As I said, I sent Stan an email complimenting him on the album. He sent me email back immediately saying that he was dead in the water. His career is not going anywhere. I don't know why.
There is two themes in the song that I find important. First is the need for master craftsmen. How do you become the best in any field? You work for about 20 years and suddenly people realize that you are the best and start seeking you out. If you are not willing to work for 20 years in the music industry before becoming a superstar, then you should just give it up. Hard work will be rewarded. Now admittedly there are groups that rocket from obscurity to superstardom after just a few years or months in the business. In almost every case, they crash and burn and are never heard from again. The creed of the master craftsman is:
Too many people do not dedicate themselves to being the best. They look at that long road ahead and become discouraged. I've always been fascinated by that concept. Here's what I'm trying to get at. To implement the creed above, you have to live in a society where you know that 20 years down the road, you will reap the benefits from your hard work. If you cannot see 20 years into the future, then why bother? Why try being the best? No matter how hard you try you will get nothing for your effort. It all has to do with putting off self-gratification. You refuse to do that, you can't be the best. America is a stable economic environment compared to the rest of the world. That means that people can put of self-gratification and become the best in their field. We have more Nobel prizes in the sciences than any other country in the world, because our researchers know that they can work away for 20 years, learning their craft and then reap the benefits.
Now the second theme of that song is parenting. You have to dedicate yourself to being a good parent regardless of your station in life. The song makes the point that it doesn't matter to your child what others think of you. It's what they think of you that matters. You either decide that you are going to be a good parent or you abdicate your responsibility. The guy in the song has started reaping the benefits of being a master craftsman. Suddenly he has to confront the possibility that his craft may not be the most important thing in the world.
Too often in our country we seek to make the case that single parenthood is a lifestyle's choice. The thinking goes that children of single parents are just as stable as children of two parent families. That assertion is insanity to me. Why would anyone believe that in the face of all the evidence pointing in the opposite direction? I cannot figure that one out. Raising kids is important.
Hillary Clinton makes the point in her book, It Takes a Village, that the community has the responsibility to raise children. Her thinking starts with the African proverb, "It takes a village to raise a child." Well, that doesn't work, even in Africa. You see, in Africa they have a clan structure, which means that when a child is born to a woman, the man may if he chooses stick around and raise the kid or not. If not, then all the extended family raises the kid. Any male in the clan can take an interest in a given child and make sure that the child is well taken care of. The problem with this approach is that the child never has any stability in his or her life. There is a constant change of people doing the parenting. When everyone is responsible for raising a child, then no one is. The child is never able to commit to one person, so never learns commitment to anything. In that environment, you cannot get master craftsmen, because most children are raised thinking that the hard work necessary to become the best will not pay off. Commitment to anything becomes literally unthinkable. Africa is poor because Africans cannot easily become master craftsmen, people committed to doing their best. They are dedicated to just getting by. In short, adopting that paradigm is a stupid idea. Someone has to take responsibility for raising a child. If the child grows up thinking that no one is responsible for raising the child, then the child cannot believe that any type of commitment will do any good.
In short, we are polluting the environment necessary to produce master craftsmen in our society. We are destroying too many children's ability to commit to being the best. Without that willingness to volunteer, a society cannot produce people willing to be the best.
Segment 4
We go back a track on Stan Swiniarski's album, Mexico.
That was Overnight Sensation. As I said, I sent Stan an email complimenting him on the album. He sent me email back immediately saying that he was dead in the water. His career is not going anywhere. I don't know why.
There is two themes in the song that I find important. First is the need for master craftsmen. How do you become the best in any field? You work for about 20 years and suddenly people realize that you are the best and start seeking you out. If you are not willing to work for 20 years in the music industry before becoming a superstar, then you should just give it up. Hard work will be rewarded. Now admittedly there are groups that rocket from obscurity to superstardom after just a few years or months in the business. In almost every case, they crash and burn and are never heard from again. The creed of the master craftsman is:
To be the best, you must run with the best
You must compete with the best
You must commit yourself to BEING the best
AND... you must fail as many times
as is necessary to STAY the best
--- Jesse Owens 1936
Too many people do not dedicate themselves to being the best. They look at that long road ahead and become discouraged. I've always been fascinated by that concept. Here's what I'm trying to get at. To implement the creed above, you have to live in a society where you know that 20 years down the road, you will reap the benefits from your hard work. If you cannot see 20 years into the future, then why bother? Why try being the best? No matter how hard you try you will get nothing for your effort. It all has to do with putting off self-gratification. You refuse to do that, you can't be the best. America is a stable economic environment compared to the rest of the world. That means that people can put of self-gratification and become the best in their field. We have more Nobel prizes in the sciences than any other country in the world, because our researchers know that they can work away for 20 years, learning their craft and then reap the benefits.
Now the second theme of that song is parenting. You have to dedicate yourself to being a good parent regardless of your station in life. The song makes the point that it doesn't matter to your child what others think of you. It's what they think of you that matters. You either decide that you are going to be a good parent or you abdicate your responsibility. The guy in the song has started reaping the benefits of being a master craftsman. Suddenly he has to confront the possibility that his craft may not be the most important thing in the world.
Too often in our country we seek to make the case that single parenthood is a lifestyle's choice. The thinking goes that children of single parents are just as stable as children of two parent families. That assertion is insanity to me. Why would anyone believe that in the face of all the evidence pointing in the opposite direction? I cannot figure that one out. Raising kids is important.
Hillary Clinton makes the point in her book, It Takes a Village, that the community has the responsibility to raise children. Her thinking starts with the African proverb, "It takes a village to raise a child." Well, that doesn't work, even in Africa. You see, in Africa they have a clan structure, which means that when a child is born to a woman, the man may if he chooses stick around and raise the kid or not. If not, then all the extended family raises the kid. Any male in the clan can take an interest in a given child and make sure that the child is well taken care of. The problem with this approach is that the child never has any stability in his or her life. There is a constant change of people doing the parenting. When everyone is responsible for raising a child, then no one is. The child is never able to commit to one person, so never learns commitment to anything. In that environment, you cannot get master craftsmen, because most children are raised thinking that the hard work necessary to become the best will not pay off. Commitment to anything becomes literally unthinkable. Africa is poor because Africans cannot easily become master craftsmen, people committed to doing their best. They are dedicated to just getting by. In short, adopting that paradigm is a stupid idea. Someone has to take responsibility for raising a child. If the child grows up thinking that no one is responsible for raising the child, then the child cannot believe that any type of commitment will do any good.
In short, we are polluting the environment necessary to produce master craftsmen in our society. We are destroying too many children's ability to commit to being the best. Without that willingness to volunteer, a society cannot produce people willing to be the best.
posted by aRandomTexan at
1:11 PM
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