5.7.2024

But wait a minute… Haven’t you basically just justified any job as an act of creation? Seems like you’re stripping the word of any real meaning. I’m pretty sure being a middle manager at a Burger King isn’t a creative act that will lead to immortality.

To start, I think there is dignity in most any work. So any snide comments about fast-food restaurants do us no credit. “Labor disgraces no man, though some men disgrace labor!”  

There’s an interesting diatribe here about the way that mass-market labor and capital have fundamentally changed some of the pride of craftsmanship that likely existed for many types of work in previous generations. Imagine a cook in Japan at a ryokan, selecting whatever produce or catch of the day is the freshest, combining them thoughtfully, preparing meals for each weary traveler in accord with what the cook might imagine would appeal to them. Consider the precision of the cuts, the savoring of each flavor, the pride of creating, say, a perfect tomago. Is cooking a satisfying act of creation? It absolutely can be. Inherently temporal, certainly, but the recipe and techniques can grant immortality; just ask the Earl of Sandwich.

So why would working as a line cook in a fast-food chain seem to be something different? The insulting adherence to minimum-wage and not-a-penny-more. The relentless beeping of machines that are designed to standardize the timing, each meal an idealized version of whatever the food-photographers artfully presented to the focus test groups, every action choreographed to increase efficiency, reduce operating expenses, maximize return on invested capital. There’s no act of creation here for the fabricant line-cook living in this Papa Song hellscape. What’s the difference?

Following instructions, a process, a system to achieve a known outcome, is fundamentally different than an act of imagination, a creative impulse to generate something new that didn’t exist before. Standardization and reduction of unknown potential outcomes feels anathema to the act of creation.

But doesn’t a master craftsman, who has, say, sculpted with a type of stone ten thousand times have a process carefully designed and honed to minimize unexpected outcomes?

Yes, perhaps. But these are techniques designed to maximize the chance for the craftsman to create the thing they want to build.

The genesis act remains central to creating something, even if process to minimize risk and maximize return has built up around it.

But the vision or imagination of human creators has to be at the epicenter of the act.