Doug Henwood wrote:
>
> Kevin Robert Dean wrote:
>
> >Yeah, not into the idea that one can live 'outside'
> >the system, but who is going to pluck the chickens
> >come the revolution?
>
> I suppose we'll have to take turns, but, still, egads.
>
I had learned to hate farm work by the time I was 12 -- and I haven't warmed to it in retrospect. But as Yoshie & others have pointed out, the _core_ of offensiveness in almost all work is _not_ the work itself but (a) its length (b) its intensity and (c) the social conditions under which it is performed.
I've had, from about the age of 11 through 16, occasional exhilarating conversation in the field or packing shed. I've had good conversation in a factory -- the possibility of which was created by the unofficial quota system on the gear-shave machines. One could work like hell though a couple 30 minute bursts, then be far enough ahead to be able to dawdle during the rest of the night. One could then chat with other near-by workers.
I don't know about coal mines. They sound close to irredemable.
Also anything within 50 yards of a peach-packing shed, unless they can use genetic modification for something really useful, like getting rid of peach fuzz.
Carrol