Agency v. Consumption Agency vs.

Agency v. Consumption

Agency vs. Consumption

In the third chapter of Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work, Matthew Crawford examines two contradictory forms of freedom that have arrived in modern society. The first is the concept of agency, where we are "masters of our own stuff," as Crawford puts it. That is, we are in charge of our possessions, and not dependent on others to maintain them. Crawford uses the example of a motorcycle and a modern Mercedes throughout the chapter to illustrate his points; an old motorcycle was something that the rider had to know how to operate and maintain, as it required near constant mechanical attention. The modern Mercedes, on the other hand, doesn't even have a dipstick -- an electronic signal lets the driver know that service is needed, and the service technician has to find the issue and fill the car with oil. This is the conflicting type of freedom, that of consumption, where our machines are better equipped to meet our desires but which we are ultimately less abel to control.

Both types of freedom have their limitations and their benefits; agency requires action and involvement, whereas consumption requires dependence, but on the whole I much prefer the old type of freedom, where we truly were masters of our own stuff. The satisfaction of building a piece of furniture or growing edible vegetables cannot be matched by the most magnificently manufactured and expensive couch or the most gourmet meal imaginable -- there is a true sense of ownership in being free enough to direct the course of a project. Most of America, however, seems to feel exactly the opposite. There are more and more products that do common and easy tasks for us, to the point that many are now entirely dependent on gadgets that didn't exist a decade ago, and their real-world skills have diminished.