There was actually a time when EVERYTHING was made by hand. Imagine that! Clothes, brooms, ships, barrels, cookware, all made with the use of simple machinery, but basically, even the machines themselves were made by hand, dammit! Between 1760 and 1840 the Industrial Revolution took place, ushering in the transition from hand made goods to machine made stuff. Large volumes of things became produced that cost less and it also enabled humans to expand and build enormous ships, trains and buildings. We all know what happened next.
Fast forward to the end of the twentieth century, when computerization did the same thing to manufacturing that machines did 200 years prior. Along with computerization, we also became globalized, because we could never have enough or pay too little. This is the antithesis of hand made objects, meant to last generations and become nostalgic, or sentimental remembrances of a person or place, often passed down through generations. The future that we have created seems like we are just receptacles for cheap goods.
Fortunately, there are some great hand makers in the world today who have not prescribed to the consumer culture of the day. It is still possible to have beautifully made objects in your home, use hand made utensils, wheel thrown plates and hand blown glass vases for flowers. But this is a conscious choice, unfortunately usually reserved for those with the means and education to appreciate such things. More and more, as we humans become more and more desperate trying to just survive, this notion of surrounding oneself with beauty seems frivolous and idealized. But they are not, trust me.
In order for us to re-discover our humanity, this is a perfectly sane starting point. Reject manufactured goods as much as is possible, seek out beauty and refinement and surround yourself with things made by human hands. Buy 4 dinner plates from a ceramist instead of a 16 place setting that was manufactured. Drink from a handmade glass or mug, wear a handmade brooch (wink,wink), or knit yourself a scarf. The more that we reject manufactured goods, AI, computerization, and mass consumerism, the sooner we rekindle the fire of being human through a connection achieved through the objects we touch and use, connecting us from one person to another. It happened with the Arts & Crafts movement in the late 1800’s into the early 1900’s, and it will happen again. But when?