From a recent post on X.
“My dear friend, let us examine this curious matter together, for it seems we find ourselves at a peculiar crossroads of knowledge and necessity in your republic.
Is it not true that knowledge, like a flame, must be passed from one torch to another lest it be extinguished? And yet you tell me that in your United States of America, there are too few torchbearers of mechanical wisdom remaining to kindle the minds of youth.
Consider this pressing dilemma: by the year 2027, as the masters of engineering and machining as well as those skilled in the practical arts depart from your workshops, who then shall teach the young? For knowledge of making and building things is not born in the soul, but must be drawn out through instruction and practice.
How interesting that in your society, which prizes innovation and progress, the United States of America now face the loss of fundamental wisdom—the very knowledge of how things are made and maintained. Have you not observed that true wisdom often resides in those who work with their hands, those whom you call the production engineers, industrial engineers and craftsmen?
Perhaps the noblest pursuit for your youth is not found in the lofty halls of abstract thought, but in the workshops and factories where things of substance are created. Is this not the opportune moment for the young to apprentice themselves to these masters while they remain? To become, as you say, your "nation's store of knowledge"?
And what greater security could one seek than to possess skills that cannot be easily replicated or replaced? Is this not the essence of what you call "a job for life"?
I would suggest that the defense of your republic rests not merely on weapons and walls, but on the preservation of practical knowledge. For how can a people protect themselves if they no longer remember how to build the instruments of their security?
Tell me, my friend, have I understood the nature of your predicament correctly?”