POLITICAL THEORY - William Morris

William Morris wanted to change the way workers approach their jobs and how consumers decide what they want to buy.
Enjoying our KZbin videos? Get full access to all our audio content, videos, and thousands of thought-provoking articles, conversation cards and more with The School of Life Subscription: t.ly/zELCs
Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: t.ly/qp8UW
SOCIAL MEDIA
Feel free to follow us at the links below:
Facebook: / theschooloflifelondon
X: / theschooloflife
Instagram: / theschooloflifelondon
CREDITS
Brought to you by www.theschooloflife.com
Produced in collaboration with Mike Booth
/ somegreybloke #TheSchoolOfLife

[@OneMeInMyself]

I'm starting to apply his advice to my own life and live more minimalisically, while with my purchases (esp of clothes) supporting people who genuinely enjoy the design process. It makes my belongings fewer but more meaningful to me ⚡

[@ThePeaceableKingdom]

Craftsmanship has died, and the economic reason is just one of the things that killed it. Yes, the drive to minimize prices in the industrial age was certainly one of the factors, but it's not just price. It's also time. If I want a chair I want it now. In most cases I don't want to contract for the delivery of a chair 6 months from now. I worked for many years as a signpainter. It was an industry late to be computerized and mechanized. But when it was, it wasn't always that a computer made sign was cheaper, it was that you could order it today and pick it up tomorrow; where a similar sign with several colours might take weeks to produce (just because of drying times for the paint colours). The third thing that killed it you allude to under 'consumer education'. But I want to emphasize that one for a moment. It is necessary to have some knowledge about something to even be able to judge its quality. Without that knowledge, it's all just fungible commodities. More and more we are surrounded by things we don't understand and are not competent to judge, whose origins are unknown to us. Who can judge the quality of an electronic circuit, or the design of a fuel injector, or the efficacy of a particular medicine. Even the products themselves have long since quit advertising their advantages in quality and design. They advertise not facts about their manufacture but rather appeals to our psychology - and often entirely fact-free appeals!

[@acruzp]

@Monster Mash did you even watch the video?

[@marloyorkrodriguez9975]

As much as there is beauty in Craftsmanship, Industrialization often beats it with efficiency. I ain’t saying that Craftsmanship ain’t good I’m just saying how Industrialization beats it, but still I can’t help but feel bad since if not for Craftsmanship then maybe we wouldn’t progress to what we are today.

[@sammcgee8726]

​@@marloyorkrodriguez9975The pursuit of maximal efficiency is not always maximally efficient. Short-term gains often come at the cost of long-term well-being. The present philosophies of the market, it seems to me, are almost certainly not going to change in the near future, but we mustn't begin telling ourselves that this is because this is the only way things can be. Extremist ideology has an immense drive for self-preservation-and let no one say that the privileging of profit, convenience, and disposability above all else is not extremist-but it must not be regarded as inevitable, or as necessarily pursuant to the nature of things. A belief in the impossibility of improvement greatly weakens our ability to improve.

[@kaurkristjananton2111]

My professor just ranted about him for 1h and giving us essays to read - his texts were very hard to follow. You just made everything clear in 5 min. Thank you.

[@tracesprite6078]

One problem is that people enjoy the act of buying something. It feels like a new beginning and a welcome change. They like the process of bringing the new item into their house, unpacking it, exclaiming over it, having friends notice it and then trying it out. Then they like repeating that experience with another item.

[@axvle]

Hehe, I loved how casually it was mentioned, "... a year after marrying his favorite actress and model ... ". No big deal. "Now Billy, just keep it cool and go build a few houses for fun."

[@softcat20]

Loved this video! I grew up in Walthamstow and volunteered at the William Morris Gallery there, the more I learn about him and his socialism the more I admire many elements of his thinking and creative work

[@GiantLeninHead]

The School of Life You forgot to mention how William was an activist of socialism. You also didn't mention how he was also friends with Peter Kropotkin. And how William was influenced by anarchist and communist ideals.

[@nguyenpeachie1268]

living in Vietnam and still feel cool.

[@Croi86]

He was also friends with Eleanor Marx!

[@ElasticGiraffe]

Morris's anarchistic guild socialism was of a concrete and practical (even conservative) character. He disagreed with Kropotkin's iconoclasm and dismissive, radical view of history. If anything, Morris's views align more closely with the Distributism of Chesterton and Belloc or the Georgist anarchism of Nock and Chodorov than with Kropotkin's anarcho-communism.

[@rirkkadunz9453]

forgot? or intentionally didn't include any reference to his radical socialism? - in a video that's supposed to be about his political theory. pretty weak

[@NM-je2rt]

People are usually unaware of the degrading work conditions of those who produce cheap clothes, for example. But it is also hard to convince somebody to go for a more expensive piece of clothing when they are, themselves, poor (for a 1st world standard, but poor nevertheless).

[@TheManifoldCuriosity]

Thanks for this. I was helping to prepare a charity stall today and the amount of miserable refuse offered for sale was pretty shocking. I do think the responsibility lies with consumers, but the mass-manufacturing juggernaut has so many tricks of persuasion. So, I think crafting needs to become a necessary part of education. Like Marx said in his theory of alienation, we need to be engaged with the products of labour, and so too the labour itself. There's no better way to forge a connection than making things ourselves - practical experience with the production of goods would help us to see the 'just price' in all items, and then to favour those of quality. They're my thoughts on the matter.

[@derrrtyblack88]

How would you go about doing this?

[@TheManifoldCuriosity]

Why, may I ask?

[@nickshel]

The Manifold Curiosity Well they're Marx's thoughts on the matter re-branded by the channel and repeated by you

[@TheManifoldCuriosity]

nickshel That's no explanation for why it's stupid.

[@derrickmullins348]

"Common sense" in this regard is only for preserving the dominant status quo at the expense of possible changes in socio-economic dynamics. The only stupidity I see here is an all too dismissive arrogance.

[@andreamai]

So good taste will save both the environment and the economy? Then we must place higher value on the arts in schools instead of cutting them back.

[@suzannemacmillan9135]

Andrea's Number agreed.

[@JP-1990]

Fled From Nowhere Not entirely. Check out this documentary. vimeo.com/112655231

[@Arizona9001]

Fled From Nowhere woah, so mad.

[@gamerdude1246]

+Andrea's Number It's a big dilemma because poor people in Morris's society would suffer much more, and it doesn't necessarily help the economy. It certainly helps the human spirit, but is it worth it for the price of a weakened economy?

[@stellagitaharmonic9722]

+JP Sheehan I think the point he's trying to make is that the teacher wouldn't really appriciate what others have tried to make because again.. art is depend on the eye of the beholder.

[@MikeShawUK]

Great video, but I feel it completely erases/overlooks his views and key influence as a socialist and Marxist. He was one of the most important British socialists of the 19th century, indeed, the noted historian AL Morton declared him "the first English Marxist"! He absolutely did not believe the change necessary for us to lead fulfilling, beautiful lives could be achieved by simply educating consumers and changing their behaviours. He firmly believed in revolution, that the change he felt necessary could only be achieved by workers taking democratic ownership and control over society and the economy. He explicitly advocated communism.

[@Kobe29261]

Can you elaborate?

[@SpaceBabies]

I know I'm extremely late with this but, to quote Michael H. Lang's Designing Utopia: "That Morris eventually adopted a Marxian analysis is proved by the fact that he even criticized the efforts of the social reformers, many of them his followers, at the newly established London County Council housing office that had begun to erect model tenements and cottages for the working classes. His criticisms were directed not at the design of the developments themselves, but at the unequal distribution and negative impact such halfmeasures would have on the developing revolutionary consciousness of the working classes." "By 1883, Morris cleary believes the only way to affect this change in society was by revolution." So he literally turned against reforms and vowed for actual revolution. Temporarily improving the conditions of some of the masses would lead to nowhere, only the overthrow of the ruling classes would. And he was right because the working class is still fucked and revolution is still the only way out.

[@marcoswillianl]

@@SpaceBabiesfuck revolutions.

[@codex3048]

Yes, Morris, like many foolish artists, was extremely deluded by Utopian Marxism. It's a good thing this "revolution" never occurred in England, as the proletariat and/or cultural commissars probably would have destroyed all of Morris's work, since he was "bourgeoisie."

[@carmaela2689]

Dang it. Now I can't display any of his art. No communists in my house.

[@nathaneccleston97]

You guys should totally do Peter Kropotkin.

[@MrRavan218]

yes please

[@BenjaminQuinlan]

I found this after seeing William Morris's name in my Art History book. His ideas contrasted with those of James Abbott McNeill Whistler who promoted the creed "Art for Art's Sake," not for the sake of pushing morals or ideas. Just for the sake of being beautiful. But there is a difference in what people find beautiful, right?

[@alexhutcheson8467]

The assertion that consumers need to change is, for some reason, so often overlooked. There are very few reasons, especially in the age of information, for a consumer to be swindled into purchasing a product that they 1. don't need or 2. don't want. Don't like sweatshops? Spend 30 seconds searching the manufacturing record of the company you want to buy from. It sends me for a loop when I see men and women my age (mid 20s) buying new outfits for $30 or less every time they go out. I'd wager that if you asked them how they feel about worker's rights in Bangladesh, they would be against the exploitation, yet they still own hundreds of their garments that are worn once, then fall apart. Now, I have no idea if this is willful ignorance or not but, either way, it is morally reprehensible since information is so freely available

[@yungsloth8336]

Damn ended up learning about this guy for Design Tech, turns out he's a lot more interesting than I expected...

[@melorafaelas]

Thank you very much for talk about William Morris.

[@ranimercury]

Always bringing in the existing ideas beautifully tailored to suit our time guys. Great work TSOL. I would suggest that if you could have sub titles for the narration it would be great so that people with hearing loss and disability would also benefit!!!

[@ErkaaJ]

A very interesting concept, indeed. Has anyone felt as if their own food tastes much better than that made from someone else? Or furthermore, does not a meal from a "considerable" chef/restaurant taste better than those made by your close ones? The satisfaction of your own performance, and the satisfaction of authentic quality, have its peculiar attraction.

[@marcin170697]

Interestingly Morris thought that economy should be more about DIY, quality and profit. Yet, profit was the thing that expected of customers who wanted to buy good quality, and not cheap objects which will shortly after the purchase be destroyed.

[@sf5823]

Although a bit of a scoundrel where Morris's wife is concerned, Rossetti's work is absolutely stunning, his portraits of Jane Morris are simply wonderful.

[@sPanKyZzZ1]

I 've just found your channel and it made my day .. I was searching for something like this :3

[@belkacemgueliane7490]

another great man and another great video keep it up!!

[@erick-gmz]

So he was Marie Kondo and Matt D'Avella before it was cool, thankfully today it is cool and individuals are more conscious on subjective value. I was introduced to him in architecture school but didn't realize how interesting he was. I respect very much his ideas, and I will share them by example and not by force 👏🏽👏🏽

[@LeoBurca]

The school of life is the one channel that does not make me feel bad no matter how long I watch it

[@magicknight13]

Love William Morris !!

[@alexismichael7783]

Your videos are absolutely amazing when it comes to providing complex theories and world view of different theorists in a nutshell. Thank you. I would suggest that it might be interesting to see also several theorists of Legal Philosophy/ Theory, perhaps like H.L.A. Hart, John Finnis, Ronald Dworkin, or others.

[@ianbeddowes5362]

What is amazing is that this person has managed to convert Morris the revolutionary Marxist into a liberal individualist,

[@jeshiaisrael2222]

This helped me soooo much thank you 💯

[@wikitubia4382]

Great Video , thanks

[@TimCizej137]

Great video (as always).

[@andrewschultz6608]

I enjoyed his fantasies very much. They inspired CS Lewis a good deal. I never got around to seeing about his other works and ideas, til now.

[@ernststravoblofeld]

That's a very interesting insight, that a good economy requires good taste. But also a little discouraging. Bad taste is a tenacious foe.

[@arhabersham]

3:23 "the education of the consumer...". I became a school teacher looking forward making a dent on that...

[@Alexander-no4mu]

You should make a video about Michel Foucault or Terence Mckenna. Or any philosopher who explored the human condition and culture through the use of drugs. I feel it's a crucial area of philosophy to study when it comes to the freedom and integrity of human beings. It also covers modern man's relationship to nature.

[@blackdave25]

Good video

[@mcol3]

It'd be nice to see a video on dystopian or utopian novels, such as Morris's News from Nowhere.

[@redefinedliving5974]

The OG Marie Kondo

[@MacSmithVideo]

A cautionary tale...

[@derrrtyblack88]

As a teacher, my students would benefit from the craftsmanship ideaology. Currently, it is more labour than craft.

[@Adamantablade]

Do a video on Ayn Rand or Voltaire.

[@R3L4X97]

I wonder if that could be applied to bereoucracy with the ever increasing use of virtual technology. Our minds are still set to find pleasure in creating phisical objects, hence the feeling of fulfiment when we craft something, but working in a cubicle is constraining and frustrating. Wouldn't it be greate if VR could substitute typing on a keyboard with using our hands in a 3D space to manage files, complete reports and create presentations? It would be an illusion but at least it would aleviate some of the torment. What do you guys think?

[@white_finch]

I'm loving your "Political Theory" videos and I found an interesting fact, in most of them a thing I clear, to have a better economical system the consumer needs to be educated. Marx and Adam Smith concours. (and alot of other people as it seems...)

[@jonathaneennewton9869]

OG Marie Kondo right here

[@GroundCricketHQ]

He is the polar opposite of Confucius when Confucius rights that if you receive a beautiful vase, for example, you should see it as broken so that when the inevitable disaster strikes and you break it, it is not such a disaster. Almost like a property or consumer stoicism.

[@user-du2of3lh1g]

Ikea is the blight of craftsmanship

[@dookljuc9747]

Can you do video on Julius Evola?. . . Or Rene Guenon?. . .

[@sssniperwolffan5569]

William Morris is known as a designer and manufacturer of wallpaper, furniture and tapestries; a poet and a social reformer. However, he studied theology at Oxford University and was destined for the church. In his fresher’s year, Morris met fellow undergraduate Edward Burne-Jones, who was to become a lifelong friend. The two of them planned to become clergymen and establish a monastery. 3. He turned to art after touring northern France In the summer of 1855 Morris, along with Burne-Jones and fellow-student William Fulford, travelled across northern France, visiting medieval churches and cathedrals. Inspired by the sites, Morris and Burne-Jones decided to give up the church and dedicate their lives to art. 4. Dante Gabriel Rossetti nudged Morris to paint After being awarded his BA, Morris started work as an apprentice at an Oxford-based architectural firm in January 1856. In the meantime, Burne-Jones became an apprentice to one of the leading Pre-Raphaelite painters, Dante Gabriel Rossetti. In the summer of 1856, Morris was introduced to the painter and he fell under Rossetti’s spell. Morris had a deep respect for Rossetti and when the artist suggested that he should take up painting instead of architecture, Morris did just that.

[@kclieyenfer]

Thank you! Can you do a video on Nietzsche's eternal return?

[@dunnowy123]

I feel like we're on the cusp of this. While I don't believe we can maintain a modern advanced economy with a completely artisanal economy, consumer tastes are getting more complicated nowadays. And it's funny, because it's the so called hipsters who are driving it. Once mocked, now everyone is copying them.

[@neilrulz24]

basically better taste means people will buy better things and be happier making those things

[@anjamaclean-wilke5264]

As far as I know, Jane Burden was not an actress (cf. subtitles 0:54). Rosetti and Burne-Jones met her at a theatre performance, but she and her sister were in the audience, not on stage (reference: www.morrissociety.org/publications/JWMS/04.4Winter1981/W81.4.4.Flemming.pdf, p. 12). Very good video, by the way, as always :)

[@WiwaxiaSC]

What books did he write these Ideas in?

[@JanetteHeffernan]

Sadly the fashionable green wallpaper used arsenic and killed many people. Green wallpaper and carpets was deadly. See BBC series on this subject but Morris was unaware of this. Yes buy carefully and keep using the items through generations. Things go in and out of fashion but something beautifully made and good to look at is always a pleasure.

+The School of Life Do you happen to have a pdf file of that poster with the quote "Have nothing in your house you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful"? Thanks.

***** Damn! I immediately thought of a pdf file because it remimded me of that other poster of yours about the 'Ten Virtues for the Modern Age' - it has the same outline with an Arts & Crafts pattern and everything. Would you consider making a .pdf off of it?

[@NetoPilsen]

Doesn't this idea assumes that all the market has the option to go for the quality product? Wouldn't making products that last longer slow down the economy as quantity demanded lowers? Wouldn't making cheaper products arrange a broader market spectrum (i.e., available for poor and rich alike) ?

[@HerpDerpAccount]

Anyne knows the name of the painting, with the girl in the yellow shirt that appears on 00:34 ?

[@AbandonEarth911]

Fashions change, built in obsolescence.

[@alphaomega1089]

One this guy was an artists! How best to spend one's time is the main stead of such a mindset. An artists doesn't understand the process of turning a resource into an object that can be loved. Mining the materials. Farming the energy. Appreciating the market. He was correct about enjoyment of labor. If: not; enter the machine unable to determine how efficient the process is. Society does need to be educated on what is valuable to it; and, what is not. Sadly: society is a collection of individuals. These individuals have one thing in common. That commonality is sustaining their daily lives. That requires energy and love. It is love (what is appreciated) that is the main difference between us all. Some may love the cheap and disposals because it doesn't require much investment. Some may love the expensive and charitable because it does require much investment (which the well-do have plenty of). He forgot those workers spent very little time at home to sit and reflect on their possessions while doing up to 12 hours a day sweating; and, another 8 sleeping. They could count how much an object was worth by tallying it against that working day. The rich only had to tally how many of said workers they had. And: how much time was spent helping to stimulate the economy to grow was their only business of the day.

[@noooreally]

I think Morris had it backwards... Within the system of capitalism it is on the consumer to show charity to the worker. What if workers gave their work up to those they see fit. Take the example of the car.... 1 worker could build a ferrari for 1 rich guy and the rich guy could pay him quite nicely for it... or the same worker could build a combine harvester for a farmer who feeds hundreds of hungry people... Which one would the worker find more rewarding?

[@SinerAthin]

Mass production doesn't necessarily immediately equate to shoddy quality or short lifespan in the products. Take the AK47 Assault Rifle for instance. Mass produced, yet sturdy and durable, a weapon that can last through generations with proper care and maintenance.

[@visceralliterature5634]

+SinerAthin Touche, but the on the whole, the popularity of the AK-47 demonstrates how poorly other mass produced automatic/semi-automatic rifles have fared. It is the exception not the norm

[@BosonCollider]

+Visceral Literature Pfft. Try making a rifle yourself. Even with significant experience with machine tools, building something better than any mass produced version is going to be very, very difficult. Most likely you'll end up building something that will either explode and kill you or be too heavy to carry. Mass production actually does often allow better quality than any artisanal product as long as the technology and capital are there, especially when fine metalurgy or electronics are involved.

[@galek75]

+SinerAthin The video doesn't address the quality of products, but rather the quality of life of people in the world.

[@BosonCollider]

***** Speak for yourself. Watching a well-designed highly automated factory at work is quite mesmerizing. Making a machine that makes something is usually quite a lot harder than making that something artisanally, and I'd say that knowing how much work was involved in getting that product to me at an affordable price is quite satisfying as well.

[@BosonCollider]

***** The first day sure. But the real attraction here is novelty, and that can wear off really quickly. And yes, you can certainly feel connected to field work with a tractor, tractors are intricately crafted machines too, they can be fun to use and maintain. Repairing a tractor requires creative thinking and problem solving in a way that doing the tractor's work by hand would not.

[@Hakiimthedream]

I use the first few seconds of each video as a freestyle period

[@dimeloloco]

Starting at the last 5:00 minutes you immediately realize that the author of this video, most likely Alain de Boton himself, hasn't actually read Morris, whose News from Nowhere (1890) is a classic utopian socialist work, which envisions a world with no banks governments prisons or markets, or he is purposefully downplaying Morris as a preeminent Marxist activist and abolitionist in the UK, who befriended prominent anarcho-communist and activists like Peter Kropotkin an advocate of decentralised communist society free from central government and based on voluntary associations of self-governing communities and worker-run enterprises., or is purposefully ignoring the fact that Morris created his own strand of a craft-based, worker-centric enterprise, unfortunately sole owned and pragmatically-situated within the racial capitalist system of the time, despite his desire for a new world. This video is feel good entertainment, reducing Morris to some kind of Marie Kondo figure, it unfortunately butchers his history reducing his radicalism to a mere opinion about consumption, most likely to increase book sales and leave people feeling good about their own "responsible" consumerism and overall complacency.

[@marvwatkins7029]

Morris= Penny Mustard v. Ikea.

[@troubledsole9104]

Unfortunately, products are made cheaper with far less quality. Even the new doors I install in my home cannot measure up to the old ones that are being replaced, which are 40 years old. I cannot save the old ones; I would if I could. Even those are not as good as the ones that were built over 50 years ago. One I recently purchased from the Home Depot is made out cardboard (I kid you not) sandwiched between two veneers. It is an extremely light door. it would not take much to knock it off its hinges. I will give it 5 to 10 years.

[@adrian56837]

5 minute discussion is better than 33 minute video

[@romando6858]

Emma Goldman

[@Kraisedion]

I'm a little surprised gow this video glosses over the fact that he implemented these ideas into his own vision of Socialism, was actively engaged in and (co-)founded socialist movements and would greatly influence key Fabians.

[@GuthrieTimothy]

Does anyone know who wrote the article this video is based off of?

[@L.M1792]

Yes of course, but we are approaching the simple single bed from the incorrect direction. Your mind should always be on what is immaterial, and be rid of what little materialism you have gained. We of this comfort zone in society, fridges, washing machines, electric kettles, electric full stop, have distracted our true intentions, clouded our own judgment with materialism. We deserve comfort and not disadvantage in life, this is beyond doubt, but not at the expense of our true nature. We are perhaps too often taught to think we need more than we actually do. God bless

[@Moosemoose1]

School of Life forgot to mention that he was a Socialist - he wasn't a supporter of industrial capitalism, nor did he simply want better educated consumers to make better business and consumption patterns in order to improve capitalism - he was an ardent Socialist who was friends with Eleanor Marx and Kropotkin and hated capitalism. This is supposed to be a series on Political theory, but doesn't go at all into William Morris' radical political beliefs. His artwork and focus on craft was a direct criticism of industrial capitalism and his philosophy was - as was many Art Nouveau artists at the time - that we needed to return to the beauty of truth of nature, which is why all his designs are richly ornate and colorful and plastered with plants and flowers.

[@MCSkiure]

'have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.' marie kondo is that u?

[@sustaingainz7856]

Did he write any books?

[@Lazleaux]

These videos are exceptionally useful, however I believe that continually identifying one person or another as being, "the first to understand that" is like saying Benjamin Franklin discovered electricity.

[@Lazleaux]

Please do not be offended by my words, I am simply making a point that I believe to be completely valid and worth sharing.

[@Lazleaux]

I watched a documentary recently which gave full credit to Muslims in the early days of Islam as having invented the idea of paper and then gave it to the rest of the world. Although Muslims did develop paper independent of outside influence the documentary did a pretty good job of painting a picture wherein paper had not existed in the world previously, and this inaccuracy has the potential to be misleading to any audience lacking in any sort of further knowledge related to the topic.

[@blues_guitar_string3733]

You did not mention his wonderful works of fantasy. Most significantly, The Well at the World's End. This is a portrayal of something like a medieval world, wherein people seek the healing, long-life giving waters of a magical well, recalling perhaps, the legend of the Fountain of Youth. Pure magic!

[@mahaputera7]

well lets differentiate between craftsmanship and interactive effect, what we see at IKEA and Morris "Red House" is TOTALLY can't be compared. but yeah, thank's to WW2 when every thing slogan is "with few creates more" and forget about whose making it. and also after war, comes the mighty BAUHAUS that influence everything and especially industrial house seem don't bother about it.

[@nemanjat1096]

Should products cost more if business tradition lasts more than a decade?

[@duellingdescartes7950]

Joy in work is not a new insight, it is in the Bible.

[@forestpepper3621]

William Morris would have scolded me for not valuing craftsmanship. Sometime around 2010, I visited an art gallery, and an artist was selling his paintings of boats, which were very nice. But he was asking something like $5000 for each painting. Maybe I'm just not knowledgeable enough about paintings, but that seemed more than a little pricey, and I did not buy one. I'm sure he had spent years developing his craft and put great effort into each painting, but I just couldn't see spending anywhere near that amount for one of his paintings. Now, maybe this guy was famous, and I was ignorant of this (which is entirely possible), in which case perhaps $5000 was a bargain for one of his paintings. I wish the guy well, and I hope he finds customers to buy his paintings.

[@sschuds68]

I enjoy The School of Life videos but would like to see more videos about the other side of the argument: Hayek and Milton Friedman, for example.

[@EclecticoIconoclasta]

Their video on "capitalism" more or less does that. It gives both the arguments of the defenders of capitalism and its critics side by side

[@v.watson4179]

I'd be good english subtitles...

[@ElectrickSoundz]

Oogel

[@vikrantheleswarapu107]

I think the charm of craftmanship ultimately can be boiled down to "authenticity". People recognized how gross consumerism is (see Wall-E, Idiocracy, Fight Club, etc) but they're happy to acknowledge it and then move on. But nowadays companies have gotten smarter. Nowadays, authenticity is manufactured. Companies curate their products to seem authentic- by appealing to our sensibilities (political, social, etc.). They strive to be seen as people (see companies making memes or using slang on social media like twitter). Or they frame their product as a means of escapism from the inauthentic/consumerist world (invoke pictures of nature, family, etc.). Ricklantis mix up in rick and morty addresses that as well. Social media does this too in the form of influencers. Lindsey Ellis made an excellent video on this and phrased it better than I ever can: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bnetdqd5q8dlgdk. So businesses have recognized the desire for authenticity and commodified it. So it may be too late.

[@christopherchris8375]

Greed wins 🎤🎤🎤🎤

[@andreamai]

How synchronistic! The next day after watching this video, William Morris came up in an interview I was doing for my vlog! kzbin.info/www/bejne/hpilp5Kbjr2Mqq8

[@raghavagrawal14]

Hey +the school of life,I recently sent a question to your chief philosopher john on "How trust can be harnessed by kids?" where can i ask you guys questions,is that the right email? P.S : I consider thebookoflife.org is a milestone of human thought

[@raghavagrawal14]

***** Yes i do understand guys,the wavelength at which he must be juggling up multiple conjectures coming in his mind from himself and multiple sources must be enormous!,so how can i ask you guys questions? like unrelated to your weekly content but philosophical

[@raghavagrawal14]

***** Got it,just one request guys.Please do a Reddit lama session once a while like maybe once every six months,or maybe even a webinar

[@allenaussie7041]

Quality over quantity, that was a famous motto from the national socialist movement, and it still carry's on in many German productions today.

[@gking407]

Invest in people the way Morris suggests investing in things, and we might see less conspicuous consumption. Just a guess.

[@Dondolini94]

Cusumers education: data not found.

[@SN-xk2rl]

William Morris started the pernicious myth that consumers have vastly more agency than they in fact have. The majority, one that has been growing across the entire history of capitalism, lack the funds to exit the market and wait (search etc.) for the just value goods/service being produced. People buy cheap because it is what they can afford. The people with the power, on the other hand, the capitalists, who own sufficient wealth that they in fact have the agency to exit the market and wait (search for, or in this case create the firms) that do in fact produce high quality goods) to reward labor for the just value createdare left off the hook. But wait, the sole capitalist that does this on their will be at a competitive disadvantage in relation to other less noble capitalists who buy from and run firms that go with privileging return on investment over quality of individual good produced. Over time (and turn over time of capital will be crucial here as "exit" and "waiting" are necessary to determine the "just price") the more noble firm will capture less profit and the more venal firm operating on marketable lowest common denominator factors will win out. So, over time the just price firms will leave the market for good and the profit-uber-alles (within the law) firms will survive, get larger, capture first mover and entrance barrier rents leading to a market structure that is an oligopoly and note genuinely competitive overe price and quality (like the modern economy in the 20 most developed economies measured by output per work). In sum: Morris was a 19th century petit bourgieous intellectual who harbored romantic fantasies about how justice could be preserved in a modern capitalist economy - which it can not. Despite being false, theses ideas are the fodder that drive PMC to their local farmers market, pay extra for anything labeled "artisan," swallow the lies of John Mackey (CEO of Wholefoods) and swear it tastes like Brei cheese - yummy.

[@davidshelow5334]

Bravo! Morris is my co-pilot! But you didn't say anything about his political theories...

[@lucylocks444]

My sixth form is named after this guy. So is a pub near my sixth form. A little random fact no one cares about.

[@zaraimpala3962]

William Morris was a revolutionary socialist. He would have whole heartedly supported public ownership of corporations and banks it's really odd that you didn't lay out Morris's many contributions to socialism in Victorian England, his socialist writings, speeches, preaching about labour rights on street corners and getting arrested for public obstruction.

[@rhodiusscrolls3080]

What the devils Nidhog ? Can't believe in anyone who has a dragon for a mother.

[@jonathankohn9231]

Too ideal.

[@saarthaktomar1610]

okay. so i am not saying anything you said (about Morris's ideas) is entirely wrong but it does seem like it has been cheery picked. From my reading of Morris and of people people from a lot of circles, he in the long run wanted to abolish money commodity. And just like laterday marxists and socialists and anarchists, he had theories for pre revolutionary conditions, i.e. with money and wage labor etc. He was not a naive theorist who believed some aesthetic change in production and commodity culture will solve everything, which this video makes him look like.

[@Doctor119]

Cool video! I disagree with Morris, though. I can see the value of a well-constructed house, or table, but other things no. I don't want to buy expensive, tailored clothes when I'm 21 just to have to buy a whole new expensive set when I get old and fat, not to mention when fashions change. And no matter how well-constructed it is, I don't want to be stuck with a phone with tech from 10 years ago.

[@davidliddelow5704]

Doctor119 Fair enough. But hes not saying cheap mass production should be outlawed, only that consumers should be encouraged to buy better quality when they can.

[@revengeweapon-2664]

Doctor119 But Morris says "don't have anything in your house that you don't know to be useful or believe to be beautiful". Thus, if the object in question's beauty is of no concern to you, then it must only need to fulfill it's usefullness. I pretty much wear only black or white Hanes T-shirts, they are well made and cheap. At least, this is how I apply what he is saying.

[@kiaknutsson-norberg7899]

KLokt!!

[@agesilaustr]

Boy, I'm glad he didn't live to see Ikea...

[@Cubehead27]

There's a reason Morris thought industrialized work was alienating-these ideas don't come from nowhere. It seems a little irresponsible not to mention that the man was a fervent socialist.

[@chriskappert1365]

Only problem was , socialists are great with ideals but bad with math . He could easyaly know that handicraft is no match for a machine , handicraft takes hours and hours , so turns out expensive .. ........ But socialist or not , his wallpaper and textile are second to none , the best ever designed . Greetings from Holland .

[@ianbeddowes5362]

This video manages to completely ignore that Morris was the first British person, as far as weknow, to read the first volume of Marx's Capital. He was a revolutionary Marxist completely opposed to parliamentary means of struggle and was popular speaker ay workers' rallies.