[lbo-talk] Blog Psot: Why is our work so meaningless?

[123hop at comcast.net]

I'd also say that the issue of meaningful work is implicit in the rise of the vernaculars and the debates concerning the work that language ought to be doing -- so that for the first time, there is a notion that the dynamic, historic working through that is the task of the vernacular makes it in some way superior to the static yet "perfect" classical languages. A rather bold and radical assertion. 

See Dante's "De Vulgaria Eloquentia" for the articulation of these ideas. 

Joanna 

----- Original Message ----- 
This is a historical footnote and does not respond directly to Michael's 
subject line query. 

As he suggests, "meaningless work" is a feature of capitalism. My query: 
Prior to the rise and triumph of capitalism had _anyone_ ever been 
concerned, one way or another, with the meaning or non-meaning of work? 
Hence it would have been not just meaningless but unimaginable for the 
question of the meaning of work to be raised (for example) by one of 
Chaucer's pilgrims, or by any of the damned or the saved in Dante's world. 
If somehow raised the only response could have been some version of "Huh?"