The man who works recognises his own product in the world that has actually been transformed by his work; he recognises himself in it, he sees in it his own human reality, in it he discovers and reveals to others the objective reality of his humanity, of the originally abstract and purely subjective idea he has of himself
The man who knows how to fix, to get inside and understand objects has power. Those who can not fix see only magic and are prone to superstition. I have seen them, kicking cars, banging televisions in just the right way. When we have no knowledge we look to superstition to fill in the gaps. This is the route to religion; a belief in the super natural. But when we are brave and begin to question the world, when we roll up our sleeves and look under the bonnet that is where we are empowered.
The satisfaction of manifesting oneself concretely in the world through manual competence has been know to make a man quiet and easy. they seem to relieve him of the felt need to offer chattering interpretations of himself to vindicate his worth. He can simply point; the building stands, the car now runs, the lights are on. Boasting is what a boy does, because he has no real effect in the world. But the tradesman must reckon with the infallible judgment of reality, where ones failures or shortcomings cannot be interpreted away. His well founded pride is far from the gratuitous 'self esteem' that educators would impart to students, as though by magic.
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