Listen to those who know industry, and you will see that the substance of their complaints is this: “The worker whose task has been specialised by the permanent division of labour has lost the intellectual interest in his labour, and it is especially so in the great industries: he has lost his inventive powers.
Kropotkin conveys that specialized labor has led workers to lose interest and inventive capabilities in their tasks.
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And the division and subdivision--the permanent subdivision--of functions has been pushed so far as to divide humanity into castes which are almost as firmly established as those of old India.
And yet it is easy to prove that both are totally erroneous: plenty of food could be grown on the territories of Western Europe for much more than their present populations, and an immense benefit would be derived from doing so.
Almost every year brings some new, often unexpected improvement in the art of agriculture, which for so many centuries had been dormant.
The small industries are as much a distinctive feature of the British industry as its few immense factories and ironworks.
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