The dishwasher is a monument to the absurdity of the modern circus we live in.
If you want to keep the thing functioning properly for any period of time you have to remove the food and rinse your dishes before putting them in—which means you've practically washed them already. People spend nearly the same amount of time scrubbing and scraping without the satisfaction of finishing the job. Or they load lightly used dishes then let wash for an hour what could have taken 15 seconds a piece. The loading, the waiting, the unloading—not to mention the initial cost and the inevitable repairs and replacements. Why does it feel like we are servants of the dishwasher, not the other way around?
It's hard not to think of Stockholm Syndrome the way people passionately defend this monstrosity whenever I point out how absurd it is to have a machine that covers 10% of the work while taking 300% longer to complete. Consider how a dishwasher works. You cram dishes into a tight box, then hot soapy water is sprayed indiscriminately for an hour (sometimes more). Who could dream up a less efficient way to clean anything than that? Newer dishwashers seem to improve on the design only by getting hotter, spraying harder, and breaking much faster (with much pricier repairs!)
It's hard not to think of Stockholm Syndrome the way people passionately defend this monstrosity whenever I point out how absurd it is to have a machine that covers 10% of the work while taking 300% longer to complete. Consider how a dishwasher works. You cram dishes into a tight box, then hot soapy water is sprayed indiscriminately for an hour (sometimes more). Who could dream up a less efficient way to clean anything than that? Newer dishwashers seem to improve on the design only by getting hotter, spraying harder, and breaking much faster (with much pricier repairs!)
Last night I washed a whole lot of dishes and here I must give the dishwasher it's due—it made for a great drying rack! My work was slightly more but my sense of well-being was 1000% greater. With proper motivation the act of cleaning can be a beautiful alignment of your mind, body, spirit, and environment with God's will, and who could trade that for anything—especially so little?
4 comments:
Very controversial post, you're likely to lose readers from it.
You raise many superficially good points, but miss the main one. No one cares how inefficient, time-wise, the thing is compared to humans. Your time is more free. The little bit makes a difference!
Tanya liked your post, but agreed with me. Also she pointed out it saves lots of water.
Your reaction is a typical one. You sound like a dishwasher salesman.
The NYFD noticed a giant drop in sick leave in the early 1970's when they installed dishwashers in firehouse kitchens.......so I have been told. So there! ; )
I see I still have yet to find a companion in this fight, but thanks for the information!
Ice cream sales correlate with an increase in crime yet I refuse to believe there's a connection. Maybe in this case there IS a connection but I still hate the things and I'm certain they're a net negative.
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