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There is no such thing as a pure free thinker. People think and dream of the fields and occupations concretely known to them. And what is made known to a person, especially so in their formative years, is a narrow selection of successful paths which society has given some amount of airtime to. Intuitively, someone may know that gold-smithing is a job, but as their schooling, media diet, and societal expectations advertise a thousand other alternatives louder, they will not know what it entails, or the paths and opportunities it has, to any similar degree. And so, they will never pursue it. Sure not everyone will want to be a goldsmith, a weaver, or find expertise in making corsets. But thousands of people who would’ve doubtless considered it their passion, simply never found it. Because in the broader landscape of media information it's not even a blip. People choose. But only from the options they know of. And the options that they come to know are chosen by advertiser revenue numbers and click through rate. In the words of the late George Lucas: “[Of freedom of expression in western cinema] …You have to adhere to a narrow line of commercialism” If we want more people to enter the world of craft, if we want them to just even be a bit more understanding of its value relative to cheaper — industrial — production, we must make sure to inform as many people as we can. And ensure that those people know what these crafts and paths entail as simply and concretely, as they’d know what doctors or teachers do. Because new blood, new pairs of eyes through which to see and renew artisanry, is the only way craft survives.
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