A few short links on work and labor. You remember Matthew: ‘For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul’…similar sentiments have been echoed, from John Steinbeck and others. Are we turning everything into work, every activity into labor, and perverting our conceptions of leisure? What if we turn work into something so diminishing that it defies decency?
Barry Schwarz, Rethinking Work:
Pretty soon, you lose your lofty aspirations. And over time, later generations don’t even develop the lofty aspirations in the first place. Compensation becomes the measure of all that is possible from work. When employees negotiate, they negotiate for improved compensation, since nothing else is on the table. And when this goes on long enough, we become just the kind of creatures that Adam Smith thought we always were.
Umair Haque, The Bullshit Machine:
That’s the battery that powers the bullshit machine. We’re not allowed to admit it: that we’re bored. We’ve always got to be doing something. Always always always. Tapping, clicking, meeting, partying, exercising, networking, “friending”. Work hard, play hard, live hard. Improve. Gain. Benefit. Realize.