Dennis Perrin/Nancy Bauer wrote:
> manual labor to help enrich one's community, one's family, oneself, is labor
> of the highest order. Socialists used to think this way, before they went to
> college, got tenure.
You mean manual labor is beautiful when it is wholly unnecessary. But that's a trivial truism. Just think of all the third (sometimes even second) generation billionaires who spend much of their time in taxing (even potentially lethal) bodily activity just for the fun of it. You aren't talking about manual labor. You are talking about playtime.
Kelly's mildly ill-tempred post is quite correct, in particular her reference to the deadly effects of standing slightly bent over for long periods of time. Or you could try working nine hour shifts on a gear shaver. For the first two weeks on the job here will be the schedule of your first 30 waking moments the next day. You will stand at a washbowl with several trays of ice cubes in the water, and with an open bottle of rubbing alcohol nearby. You will immerse your hands in the cold water and rub them together until you can no longer stand the cold. Then you will massage them with alcohol until the cuts and scratches begin to pain too much, at which time you will return to soaking and exercising them in the cold water. After 20 to 30 minutes of this you will find that you can *almost* hold a coffee cup.
It takes about seven years before you can no longer see the steel shavings imbedded in your hands.
And did someone mention a hoe! You haven't lived, or rather haven't died on your feet, until you have spent 8 to 10 hours carefully loosening the dirt around new strawberry plants.
Unforced muscular activity properly spaced is as has always been recognized by everyone a delight and a contribution to human life. Imposed manual labor is just another name for torture.
The United States Navy found out during World War 2 that those who came from relatively affluent backgrounds were better able to endure *protracted* hardship than those who had had to endure privation and continual manual labor prior to entering service. A friend of mine was on a PT boat crew in the Pacific during the War. They were patrolling the space between an island where a B-29 base had been established and a nearby island which had been "bypassed" -- i.e., there were some 50,000 Japanese troops there, who would make periodic efforts to cross the channel. One day Bob's boat got a new commander -- a Vanderbilt. Said Vanderbilt immediately set out to earn himself a Congressional Medal of Honor -- even if it involved killing off his crew.
I doubt all theories about what humans are "hard-wired" for -- but if I were to hazard a guess I would say that we evolved not to spend more than 15 to 20 hours a week in necessary physical labor -- and then only if it were spaced out, porous, and made relatively light demands on the body.
Carrol