O Happy Day

[Gordon Fitch]

Dennis Perrin/Nancy Bauer:
> > > ...
> > > I'm intrigued by the hostility to some of my posts in this thread. I don't
> > > think I've said anything outrageous; and to the degree I've been
> > > misunderstood, I've tried to clarify my position. There's a certain
> > level of
> > > defensiveness here, what with the "anti-intellectual" and "macho"
> > comebacks.
> > > Jesus, you'd think I pissed off Norman Podhoretz!

Gordon Fitch wrote:
> >It's just one of those definition things.  What is "work"?

kelley:
> sorry, i've overposted here, but really... to amplify gordon's polite
> point...  and to note to chris that, again, i just cannot separate white
> from male from class so frickin easily....
>
> the question "what is work" isn't "just" a definition thing and i don't
> think gordon means to present it this way.
> ...

Up to the point when I posted my message, and generally still
continuing, people have been assuming different definitions
of the term _work_, and then arguing about the particulars of
each as if they were talking about the same thing.  Another
curious elision is recognition of personal aptitude and taste.

Saint Oscar is right -- no one should _have_ to sweep the
streets.  Or, in fact, do anything else.  It is the coercion
that is noxious, however, not the thing coerced.