Having grown up working on a wheat farm as a youngster, a significant fraction of my emotional energy was devoted to getting out of that. However, this is all relative. While we worked with our hands in the sense that the author means, we did it with machinery. My grandfather farmed using horses. I know he thought that working with horses was "closer to truth" than driving a tractor. I am sure that my Dad would not want to go back.

So we no longer gap our own spark plugs, fix our own broken rear springs, replace our own tires, weld our own truck beds. Has something gone out of the world? Yes. Is the answer to teach every city kid how to use a pair of pliers? Can't hurt, but that does not lead to an appreciation of the fullness of a life based manual labor.