What happens when a civilization is successful?
If society has progressed to the point where all of their basic needs are met what becomes currency? The products of the mind!
On the planet Sarran, food, shelter, education and medical care are given to all citizens by the governing council. It is the birthright of every Sarran. If all the necessities are guaranteed by law, for what should a citizen strive?
For some, the answer would be nothing. These citizens would go about their business, doing a job (everyone must be employed) that did not inspire and use the credits earned for what?
In a place where anything can be replicated, whether it be food, furniture, or entertainment, what is valued? The basic rule of economics can answer that query. Value accrues when an object is rare.
In a society where every object can be manufactured, the value is in craftsmanship of the artist, the potter, the builder and the baker. Those people who can invent something new or make something that is one of a kind. Value also accrues to the old, the antique, the object lovingly crafted generations past that has meaning to a potential buyer.
In my novel The Sarran Plague, the heroine's lovers shower her with gifts that amaze her. Yet they apologize. The gifts are replicated and therefore "not from the heart." This is something she will not understand until she is immersed in the civilization.
It is something that most of us know, but few appreciate until confronted with the difference. In the upper left corner is a very pleasant piece of decorative pottery mass produced in the United States around mid-twentieth century.
It is a pleasant pot, the color is clear and the lines are clean. It would look nice on a shelf or as part of a decorative tableau featuring items from that era or perhaps a collection of pots in that color or style.
The second pot is hand made. This piece was designed and thrown on a potter's wheel. It was hand painted. It is a Deer Pot from the Acoma Pueblo in New Mexico. The pot is a thing of real beauty. The artist's signature is on the pot. Not only at the bottom where most would look, but also embedded in the design. Each pot this artist throws is different. Even if one pot is designed to imitate the other, they are never completely alike.
The clay differs in quality and color from piece to piece and the drawings vary slightly in design. It is a work of art and would never be mistaken for man made as opposed to hand made.
Which pot would you prefer on your shelf? That is the intrinsic value of art. Art, literature, engineering, medicine and most other professions can be practiced as man made or hand made. Who would you rather have take care of your world?
AC Katt
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