Thread: It got me to thinking

I read a post in another thread that really started me thinking. The post was in relation to the ages of straight shavers. I was surprised by how many younger people out there are straight users compared to those of us in the late 30's and older. After my post another member expressed his thoughts as follows in part, "...-rather than an individual's age it could be more about timing - being here in the early 21st century with the internet and SRP, making information more available. Even for many of the older guys who have dabbled with the SR, it has been SRP that has rekindled their interest..."
I was ready to accept that out of hand as it makes sense. Then I got to thinking, it may be right for some, and this may be what happened, but then I thought that this idea might actually come second in the process. Myself personally, I was living in ignorant bliss using ordinary bath soap and a twin blade cartridge to shave in the shower...There was no need for me to change. It was working for me. So what happened?!
It wasn't the technology i.e. internet, that made me change. Certainly living in the 20th/21st century had me wondering of times not so distant and beyond and what life was like then. Here in Australia 200 years of white history meant that things progressed quite rapidly to bring us up to par with the rest of the world.
With all this thinking, I came to the conclusion that what needs to come first is the wondering, the inquisitive mind, the thoughtful. The technological age has just made it easier to fuel the fires of the thinker. It doesn't make you think, it just is. The individual that is, or for me, gradually becomes, a thinker is the one who looks for a better way to do things. The thinker is the one that looks to the past to try to improve the future, and the thinker is the one who figures out that sometimes the old ways of doing things are better, and so, reverts back to the old way of doing things.
There would be a lot of room in all this for the nuances of the individuals life and experiences of course, so feel free to disagree. It's just a thought that came to me...I like to think...I think.


Mick

I think you would be surprised how many people really do things the old ways. That's why so many of these skills survive to this day.

Too many people romanticize about wanting to live in the 1800s but they forget or don't realize what life was really like back then and most died early or never made it past childhood.

But you're correct you take the good things from the past and use them today.

For me there was no "Bliss" involved in it. I'd actively searched for years for a better way to shave. Anyone working with me for any period of time would eventually have been subject to the question "how do you shave?".
I'd half thought of the idea of using a straight razor, probably after watching "Sweeney Todd", but didn't really believe or understand that they were a viable alternative. My though on the matter was kinda like: "How could something 100+ years old even begin to compete with a modern company's product, with access to the latest in materials technology, a huge R&D budget and modern manufacturing facilities?" I'd looked at the DE in the drugstore at times, and thought "WHT? My dad gave that up 40 years ago..." and figured that the only one's still using them were probably old guys in nursing homes... too old and stubborn to bother with the newfangled crap.

On more than one occasion I'd entered "How to shave" into the google window.... finally after needing to replace my 20 yr old badger brush I really started to dig, and well, the rest is history.

The corollary to it is that there has been a huge explosion in general knowledge available to anyone with an internet connection, a cheap computer and even the faintest glimmer of curiosity. I mean, I've always been humbled by how much I didn't know, and the more I learned, the more I realized I didn't know, but 10 years ago, somethings were just un-knowable, at least with the resources at my disposal. How much time could I realisticaly spend browsing the stacks in the library on a random basis? How much info really was available? At least locally, and barring a major university education: only the common stuff.

There is an entire generation of people growing up with access to the world's knowledge at their finger tips. But I still think that there is a random aspect to it: you still need to find that trail to follow. The internet's knowledge base just makes it so much easier once you pick up on something.

If I'd know about this 20 years ago... you can believe i woulda tried it then.
For that matter, I often wonder what I could have made of myself if I'd had access to this huge wonderful thing we call the internet when I was a young adult.

Just my thoughts,

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

...Too many people romanticize about wanting to live in the 1800s but they forget or don't realize what life was really like back then...But you're correct you take the good things from the past and use them today.

It may just be the sort of people I have around me, but I find that only two others in my life (Family/Friends) are of the Romanticising/Thinker mindset. The others seem to live and think in and about the here and now without a care or a thought for what has gone on in the past. Your experiences are hopefully better than mine.

Originally Posted by wdwrx

For me there was no "Bliss" involved in it. I'd actively searched for years for a better way to shave. Anyone working with me for any period of time would eventually have been subject to the question "how do you shave?"...On more than one occasion I'd entered "How to shave" into the google window...the rest is history.

...I mean, I've always been humbled by how much I didn't know, and the more I learned, the more I realized I didn't know...

There is an entire generation of people growing up with access to the world's knowledge at their finger tips. But I still think that there is a random aspect to it: you still need to find that trail to follow. The internet's knowledge base just makes it so much easier once you pick up on something.

If I'd know about this 20 years ago... you can believe i woulda tried it then.
For that matter, I often wonder what I could have made of myself if I'd had access to this huge wonderful thing we call the internet when I was a young adult.

Just my thoughts,

To me that sounds like you were a born thinker.

Some of us (me), were only too ready to accept everything in life at face value and to give no further thought to anything seen or said. What was taught was accepted without question. It is only over the last 10 to 15 years that I have been gaining an awareness and have started to question. I would have been one of 'thebigspendurs' early deaths of a past era I think. In my early years up to my early twenties, I was niave/ignorant about so many things, or worse, just didn't care. Slow to mature perhaps...


Mick

As i started with straight razors it wasn't actually better shaves i was looking for but i just wanted to know if i can do this all. By the time i didn't know that there are so many things to learn before shave is at least ok. Little by little i learned: some today and some tomorrow, making mistakes every once and a while. Had nobody to show or tell as i didn't know anything about internet related shaving sites. To my big surprise one day my shave was better than ever before. I'm not ready but still trying to be learn.
This is my strange nature: I've been doing some woodworking and metal working for years. I started with electronic tools but little by little i i began using traditional hand tools as i knew that they were capable of doing almost the same as electric tools. Skill makes the difference. I'm not saying i'm skilled, but that is a direction i am heading. Not about the tool but the hand that holds it. It is not fancying 'good old times' (which never were) as many things were really worse then. It is rather taking good things from the past and carrying them past this day.

Originally Posted by MickR

Some of us (me), were only too ready to accept everything in life at face value and to give no further thought to anything seen or said. What was taught was accepted without question. It is only over the last 10 to 15 years that I have been gaining an awareness and have started to question. I would have been one of 'thebigspendurs' early deaths of a past era I think. In my early years up to my early twenties, I was niave/ignorant about so many things, or worse, just didn't care. Slow to mature perhaps...


Mick

It is called growing up. Now, sadly, there are so many people today who will never reach this point. It might be just the sign of the times that have teached people not to question or think further. Or not even imagine things could be questioned. In many aspects of life people really do not have to think much anymore: everything comes to the table ready and already chewed. Easy life without needless thinking.