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

shag carpet bomb shag at cleandraws.com
Mon Feb 4 15:32:05 PST 2013


Does Adam Smith's era count? Smith did worry about the mindless work that came with the division of labor - which is why he said we should invest in public works to alleviate the tedium. Workers paid the price for the Wealth of Nations, so the state had an obligation in that regard.

At 11:07 PM 2/3/2013, Carrol Cox wrote:
>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?"
>
>In English literature I believe there is nothing to suggest the question
>before Paradise Lost, where the significance of A&E's labor in Eden becomes
>of cosmological interest. There is a good deal directly or indirectly
>dealing with work in the Odyssey, but none of the references could be
>attached to Michael's question.
>
>Huge theoretical leap: Capitalism made ALL work meaningless by first raising
>the question of was work meaningful. No one had ever asked the question
>before, either implicitly or explicitly. Socrates put forth the slogan of
>Know Thyself -- which _meant_ Know your Place. It had nothing to do with
>modern concerns over self-knowledge, nor did it have anything to do with the
>"rightnefss" of the "place" in which one found oneself. It simply was the
>organizing principle of any society Socrates could imagine. It therefore
>while not raising the question in effect said that to raise such a question
>was unjust, a denial of justice.
>
>Carrol
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org]
> > On Behalf Of michael yates
> > Sent: Saturday, February 02, 2013 10:08 AM
> > To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> > Subject: [lbo-talk] Blog Psot: Why is our work so meaningless?
> >
> >
> > Full at http://cheapmotelsandahotplate.org/2013/02/02/lucky-to-have-a-
> > job/
> >
> > "Workers in a hospital are sick of management violating their collective
> > bargaining agreement. Their work is ever more stressful: hours keep
>getting
> > longer; patient loads rise; safety rules are ignored. They tell their
>union
> > steward that it is time to bombard the bosses with grievances before they
> > explode in rage. He tells them, "You better not do that. You're lucky to
>have a
> > job."
> >
> >
> >
> > In every industry in the United States, there are more people seeking
> > employment than jobs available. Conservatives and liberals alike say we
>have
> > to put men and women to work. They differ in how they would achieve this,
> > but both shout out the mantra, "jobs, jobs, jobs." Little is ever said
>about the
> > kinds of jobs that need to be created. What will they pay? Will they
>provide
> > benefits? Will they be interesting, safe, fulfilling, socially useful?
> >
> >
> >
> > Perhaps the reason we don't ask such questions is that we take our work
>for
> > granted, beyond our control and as inevitable as the rising sun. But
>looked at
> > in the long sweep of human existence, the jobs we do and the way we do
> > them are unlike anything we did before the rise of capitalism" . . .
> >
> > ___________________________________
> > http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>
>
>___________________________________
>http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk

-- http://cleandraws.com Wear Clean Draws ('coz there's 5 million ways to kill a CEO)



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list