I often find myself disenchanted with many aspects of the culture and age that I live in. As a society, we are surrounded by, and constantly bombarded with, disposable conveniences that are obtained with little thought or effort, and consequently, are taken for granted. The core of modern culture, it seems, is based on ease and convenience; and as a result, you get products that are cheap and poorly made. What engineering that has gone into a product, has gone into the development of volume manufacture and replace-ability; with no thought toward creating an item of enduring lastingness or beauty. The food that results from this culture is the worst kind of substances that you could call nutrition; created with the same manufacturing techniques applied in the production of pet food, such food stuffs seem to be more akin to the "soylent green" crackers of Sci-Fi fame, than they are to the food stuffs enjoyed only a couple of decades ago.

Entertainment has been dulled down to the lowest common denominator. Base and low desires are appealed to, without the need for conscious thought or artistic interpretation. True acting and stage presence has been replaced by mass marketed popularity. Talent, it would seem, has fallen out of vogue. Peoples appearance, which were once was subject to the dictates of style and elegance, have been reduced down to a choice of brand names and the belief that if you wear the right label that appearance no longer matters. Public tastes, appearances, interests and activities have become dictated by mass marketing and indolence, requiring little or no thought or effort; creating in effect, a culture of convenience.

Such disenchantment has been doubtlessly felt by many others, for whom the common and average is not satisfying enough. Something essential is lacking. The obvious question then is "what to do about such dissatisfaction". The answer that I have found was not to just complain about being dissatisfied and then ultimately give in; but to put aside the lure of vulgar convenience and search for something better. Cultivating the appreciation of finer things starts on a small scale with oneself and then expands outward; refining your tastes with the addition of each item you discover that embodies your ideal. Soon, one finds that there are others who also share the same disenchantment and possess the desire for something better. This is what I call the development of "a culture of appreciation".

This is a "culture of appreciation" because those who find the quest for refinement appealing, are also those who find delight in being surrounded by beauty, elegance, quality and talent. Such appreciation comes from awareness and education, and is something we all have in ourselves. Interests that each of us posses and talents that we have acquired, are all things that we can share; thus contributing to a culture of refinement, in teaching others to be better than just consumers of the ordinary.

This is an idea that I believe lies at the heart of Steampunk: taking the best from a vaunted past and applying it to the age in which we now live. Creating a culture of appreciation for things that you have created yourself, and sharing those creations with others; for objects that have been made with skill, beauty and pride; for entertainment that inspires, delights and also appeals to the intelligence; for an appearance and style that is chosen by your aesthetic ideal; for something as small as finding enjoyment in sipping a fine liquor from the appropriate glass, to as large as hosting a gathering where many more may share in the surroundings, entertainments, inspiration and fulfillment that is more than our ordinary daily surroundings.......this is the creation of "A Culture of Appreciation".