I’ve had this argument too many times with newcomers to antiwork that I’m not going to do it again with you. But ask yourself this: If people so desperately want to work, why do they dream about winning the lottery so they don’t have to? Why do they save up their entire lives to enjoy their golden years not working?
Stop looking at this from the bottom of a 6,000 year old hole that tells you that you need to justify your existence to your superiors.
I said people want to work. I explicitly said that the problem is employment, which is not the same thing as work, so I don’t know what “my superiors” has to do with this.
Work can look like a lot of different things. Cooking, gardening, producing art, building things, leading people, building or supporting communities. Even training in and playing sports is “work”. (There’s ridiculous amounts of money there in the world of sports, and athletes are compensated for their time, including that spent training, so it’s really not that strange when you think about it)
Humans are built to enjoy feeling productive.
How would you spend your retirement? Many people re-enter the workforce. Many people volunteer their time to various organizations.
Even if your idea of a perfect retirement involves endless consumption of entertainment, I’d argue that a lot of entertainment effectively simulates various kinds of work. Video games are a prime example.
Sounds like justifications for the Protestant work ethic that had to be socialized into us at torture-point. Stop trying to keep your cogs. “The chattel, they yearn for the menial factory line! They yearn for the cotton gin! They ache for feeling like they produced something!” They could make art, they could spin your culture; but we both know that’s not what you’re talking about.
I’ve had this argument too many times with newcomers to antiwork that I’m not going to do it again with you. But ask yourself this: If people so desperately want to work, why do they dream about winning the lottery so they don’t have to? Why do they save up their entire lives to enjoy their golden years not working?
Stop looking at this from the bottom of a 6,000 year old hole that tells you that you need to justify your existence to your superiors.
I said people want to work. I explicitly said that the problem is employment, which is not the same thing as work, so I don’t know what “my superiors” has to do with this.
Work can look like a lot of different things. Cooking, gardening, producing art, building things, leading people, building or supporting communities. Even training in and playing sports is “work”. (There’s ridiculous amounts of money there in the world of sports, and athletes are compensated for their time, including that spent training, so it’s really not that strange when you think about it)
Humans are built to enjoy feeling productive.
How would you spend your retirement? Many people re-enter the workforce. Many people volunteer their time to various organizations.
Even if your idea of a perfect retirement involves endless consumption of entertainment, I’d argue that a lot of entertainment effectively simulates various kinds of work. Video games are a prime example.
You totally didn’t read the first sentence
Yeah, because you didn’t understand what I said.
Sounds like justifications for the Protestant work ethic that had to be socialized into us at torture-point. Stop trying to keep your cogs. “The chattel, they yearn for the menial factory line! They yearn for the cotton gin! They ache for feeling like they produced something!” They could make art, they could spin your culture; but we both know that’s not what you’re talking about.