[lbo-talk] Why Is America So Violent?

bitch at pulpculture.org bitch at pulpculture.org
Sun May 13 12:50:33 PDT 2007


Also, I dimly seem to remember that 19th century farming was extremely seasonal in terms of labo/leisure. During winter there was not a lot you could do. Some repairs. and wood chopping and so forth, but no planting,weeding or harvesting or crop processing. So there were periods when you had tons of leisure, were maybe working a 20 hour week. But maybe this is a myth.

--

E.P Thompson wrote an important book about the shift from task-oriented work to time-oriented work.

on the blog somewhere, I have some quotes, among which is an industrialist in New England bitching about farmers in town. He wanted to see to it that they weren't milling about town lest the factory workers see them. They were a bad influence, he said, because they were slackers. IOW, when there was little work to do -- not the harvest or planting time or whatever -- farmers hung around town and made mill workers long for that kind of life, rather than the drudgery of living by the time clock.

as for this issue, it seems pointless to wonder about whether it's really true -- if the epxlanation for why the disparity between what's really true and perception is wrong. Which is to say, if people expect more out of life, so? They should. Dismissing people for feeling overworked and as if they deserve better lives surely does us little good. Instead, the point would be to get people to ask the bigger question. How do we change things so that we do get out of life what we expect. Beating people over the head for having the temerity to watch television, rather than deal with the bullshit that goes on in some leftist enclaves at meetings hardly seems worthy of a dicsussion list inspired by the notion that pop culture ain't such a bad thing.


:)



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