Catherine Elizabeth Sherwood
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Industrial society is over
Nov 05, 2025
Ever since the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution about 200 years ago, the world has been shaped with the maxim to end of piece work, terminating most cottage (meaning single person) output, and transitioning to a cohesive workplace where workers come together, each as part of the process, manufacturing goods, services, and product. Factories became the norm, mines were reorganized to train miners each to a singular task, leather workers tasked with portions of the whole making shoes as component parts, wheelwrights tasked for single spokes instead of the whole wheel, engine builders becoming specialists with pistons, cranks, molding individually, never together.
The whole point of the industrial society is that you mastered a single task and were a repetitive integral part of that physical process, making corporate end product dependent on assembly of product designed and compartmentalized to allow corporate structure to oversee the whole. We became an industrial society — workers and management, services and delivery, sales and marketing.
Some say we are now in a new industrial revolution. Revolution? For sure, but industrial? When every component portion of industry can now be made by machine or robotics, the age of humans fitting into the old Industrial Revolution pattern is over, redundant. We’ve begun a move to the knowledge revolution, wherein only knowledge and individual learning and intelligence determine societal structure.
Look, a robot can easily replace a car assembly worker. $35,000 and you’re done; a new “worker” capable of 24/7 operation, no pension, no benefits. For every 50 robots you need a technician, a knowledgeable technician, a human currently (until robots simply unplug, allow a replacement automatically in place, and take themselves off to a scrapyard). Same goes for all miners, truck drivers along freeways, airlines wanting AI and only one pilot in the cockpit, Madison Ave. using machine learning to design marketing campaigns, or Amazon firing warehouse workers for robots.
Some current trades, often thought of as menial labor, will have to reap greater respect. The knowledge of a plumber, fixing existing pipes and sanitation, are very specifically specialist-empowered — plumbers are a knowledge based industry. As are electricians, doctors, nurses, astronauts, teachers, and a host of other “trained” humans with complicated variables in their learning and output. Training is gaining knowledge, experience is improving that specialist knowledge – knowledgeable people are indispensable in the new society we are forging.
But the truth is, the shift from industrial to knowledge-based societal structures will be painful. The least educated will be — as they were in the mid-1800s — the worst hit. Deemed marginal consumers, marginal capitalist participants, some in power will either seek to take advantage by claiming to be “on their side” for political control or politicians in power will degrade social and medical services to allow the poorest, least educated, to perish. Make no mistake, there are already restructuring forces at workin America — either by design or by inevitable outcome of the switch from industry to knowledge. Gone already are the lifetime jobs’ plans and structures, job mobility is already the norm. Education (gaining knowledge and therefore a place in the new societal structure) has become more and more expensive — increasing the societal divide. Apprentices are gaining traction — as they did in the 1800s — to ensure specialist knowledge supports a sustainable societal future — everyone needs a plumber, car mechanic, nurse, electrician.
It is a brave new world, one which may well flourish, but currently is being undertaken by subterfuge, hiding the reality from civilians, workers, families — all who want to plan for their future. Without knowing what the future may hold — unless you are an architect or purveyor of the new knowledge society — most people haven’t got a clue. And history has shown that deliberate — but secret except for a few at the top — new societal change is going to hurt everyone, everywhere. The question is: How big will the backlash be?
Peter Riva, a former resident of Amenia Union, New York, now lives in Gila, New Mexico.
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Cancer is not a battle
Obituaries of people killed by cancer virtually always refer to the “battle” fought by the decedent. As in, “After a long battle with cancer, John Smith died at home yesterday.” Or, “Sarah Jones, who bravely battled cancer for years, passed away peacefully last night.” This convention has become so ingrained that both readers and writers of obituaries rarely give it a second thought. If they do, they might think it is somehow ennobling to describe someone as engaged in a life-and-death struggle.
But what are we really saying when we say that someone died as a result of this “battle”? We are saying that cancer won the battle – and the cancer victim lost it. Talk about adding insult to injury. The cancer victim is not only dead, he’s a loser.
Framing cancer as a “battle” blames the victim. Winning a battle means that you have fought harder or better than your adversary. Losing the “battle” with cancer implies that you failed to do enough to win. It sends the message that if only you had fought more, or been tougher, you might be alive today.
Talking about cancer in this way is offensive and wrong-headed. Suppose someone walking down the street is killed by a brick falling from the top of a building. No one would say that person lost his battle with a brick. But like that brick, cancer is something that just hits you. If the treatment you undergo is successful (as chemotherapy was in my case), you will live. If the treatment is unsuccessful, you will die. It has nothing to do with how much “fight” you have in you. All the positive vibes in the world will not rid a body of cancer.
None of this is meant to say that cancer patients should just give up, or shut down. They should of course assiduously seek the best treatment available, and rigorously follow their doctor’s orders. But doing everything one can to be cancer-free is not accurately or fairly described as “battling” cancer.
I recognize that no one describing cancer as a “battle” means to denigrate, demean, or blame the victim. But that is what happens, however unintentionally, when we speak in this manner. Out of respect for those who have lost their lives to cancer, let’s retire the “battle” metaphor.
James Speyer
Los Angeles, CA
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The following excerpts from The Millerton News were compiled by Kathleen Spahn and Rhiannon Leo-Jameson of the North East-Millerton Library.
November 1, 1934
Post Office In New Building
The Millerton post office was moved Tuesday night into permanent quarters in the new one-story brick building on Center Street. The post office has been situated in the erstwhile saloon of Charles A. Corey for the past five months, having been transferred there the first of April from the Shufelt building on Main Street. It was understood when the office was moved last spring that the new quarters, also situated on Center Street, were to house it only temporarily pending construction of the new building which was to have been ready for occupancy July 1.
Voting Machine To Be Demonstrated
Supervisor Frank L. Minor of the town of North East has announced that a voting machine will be demonstrated at the town room in the Brick Block Friday and Saturday from 10 a. m. to 9 p.m.
November 8, 1934
New Evidence Is Rumored In Germond Case
Important new developments are expected in the Germond murder case, according to prevalent rumors, although authorities have denied that any new angles have entered the picture and state that no definite information has been presented. Private agencies, however, have been attempting solution of the crime and are seeking to obtain evidence of sufficient strength to warrant official action, it is said.
Dobbin Honored On Birthday
MT. WASHINGTON-Saturday was dobbin’s birthday party day.
“Chubby,” a twenty-five-year-old Western broncho owned by Betty Melius, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. N. L. Melius, was the guest of honor at a unique birthday party held on the lawn of the Melius place here Saturday afternoon. Invitations were sent to four other saddle horses, and upon arriving at the scene of festivity with their child riders each of the equine celebrants was fastened to a tree on which a place card was tacked.
November 6, 1975
Residents Ignore Planning Hearings
No member of the public showed up at the Comprehensive Plan hearings held last week in the Village of Millerton and the Town of North East.
ERA Loses In New York
The controversial Equal Rights Amendment was handed a defeat by New York State voters on Tuesday, 1,724,189 voting no and 1,329,545 yes. (At press time, 92 per cent of all the State election districts had reported).
In Dutchess County, the ERA, Amendment 1 on the ballot, lost 35,566 to 20,784.
November 2, 2000
Proposed Charter School Board Answers Public School Critics
WEBUTUCK — If approved, will a proposed charter school in the Harlem Valley result in significant tax increases? Do charter schools and conventional public schools compete on a level playing field?
These are some of the questions being asked in the wake of the revelation last month that a Dover group has proposed to start a charter school at the campus of the now-defunct Immaculate Conception School in Amenia.
At a joint meeting of the Webutuck and Dover school boards last month, Webutuck Superintendent Justine Winters said if the proposed Harlem Valley Charter School (HVCS) draws evenly between the Dover and Webutuck districts, Webutuck residents could see a 9.1-percent increase in taxes to make up for the loss of state aid per student. Dover Superintendent Craig Onofry projected a 7.6-percent increase.
According to Mr. Herald, if the HVCS draws about 80 students from Webutuck, the district may have to consider closing one of its community elementary schools in Millerton or Amenia. Such a move is particularly vexing in light of a recently passed 120-million capital project that includes extensive renovations to both schools.
“We’d be smarter to keep those students in one school and revisit the central campus concept,” said Mr. Herald, adding that the district “would still have to stay within the money that was approved.”
[Mr. Slater] cited reported vandalism to charter school board members’ property in Hempsted, Long Island.
“There’s been threats made and they’ve had their tires slashed,” he added.
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The shingled Washington bungalow built around 1910 at 53 Jameson Hill Road in the hamlet of Clinton Corners sold for $525,000.
Photo by Christine Bates
MILLBROOK — September brought a rare dose of affordability to the Town of Washington’s real estate market. All six single-family homes that changed hands during the month sold for under $600,000, with no seven-figure sales recorded.
This stands in sharp contrast to the 30 properties listed for sale at the end of October, where 21 were priced above $1 million. Only four homes and seven parcels of land were listed below the $1 million mark.
53 Jameson Hill Road — 3 bedroom/1.5 bath home built in 1910 sold to Courtney Hundelt for $525,000.
26 Horseshoe Road — 3 bedroom/1 bath split-level home sold to Alfred J. Dehors for $400,000.
32 Halcyon Road — 3 bedroom/2 bath home on .23 acres sold to Mariela Pelaez Cordova for $390,000.
3206 Sharon Turnpike — 2 bedroom/1 bath ranch on 1.7 acres sold to Cristina Alves for $418,000.
43 Rodrigo Knolls — 3 bedroom/2 bath split-level sold to Marcus Gonzalez for $575,000.
126-128 Christian Hill Road — 2 bedroom/1 bath home on 2 acres sold to John Gearhart for $290,000.
*Town of Washington recorded real estate transfers from Sept. 1 to Sept. 30 sourced from Dutchess County Real Property Office monthly reports. Details on each property from Dutchess Parcel Access. Current listings from realtor.com. Compiled by Christine Bates, Real Estate Advisor with William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty, Licensed in Connecticut and New York.
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