this post was submitted on 29 May 2024
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Antiwork
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For the abolition of work. Yes really, abolish work! Not "reform work" but the destruction of work as a separate field of human activity.
To save the world, we're going to have to stop working! — David Graeber
A strange delusion possesses the working classes of the nations where capitalist civilization holds its sway. ...the love of work... Instead of opposing this mental aberration, the priests, the economists, and the moralists have cast a sacred halo over work. — Paul Lafargue
In communist society, where nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity but each can become accomplished in any branch he wishes, society regulates the general production and thus makes it possible for me to do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticise after dinner, just as I have a mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, herdsman or critic. — Karl Marx
In the glorification of 'work', in the unwearied talk of the 'blessing of work', I see the same covert idea as in the praise of useful impersonal actions: that of fear of everything individual. — Friedrich Nietzsche
If hard work were such a wonderful thing, surely the rich would have kept it all to themselves. — Lane Kirkland
The bottom line is simple: all of us deserve to make the most of our potential as we see fit, to be the masters of our own destinies. Being forced to sell these things away to survive is tragic and humiliating. We don’t have to live like this. ― CrimethInc
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Reminds me of this bit from an interview with Jimmy Carr.
I think Jimmy's right. Personally I think Maslow's pyramid is backwards, it's exactly the struggle for the bottom tier that fills out the top as a consequence.
In a world where the ground levels of Maslow's hierarchy (physiological needs and safety) are not a given you absolutely need your peers to attain them. Love, esteem and self-actualization follow from it; you work together to achieve a goal and by achieving it you gain connection, (self) respect and the ability to live in accordance with your nature.
Ironically, by having all of your needs taken care of almost by default, life becomes devoid of meaning. We are robbed of the ability to gain self-reliance; any and all prerequisites that deliver what takes care of your needs are outside of our control entirely. How well we are off is mostly a matter of things like happenstance of birth, the current economy, the decisions the company you work for makes, whether or not the bank approves you for a loan, gas prices, food prices, electricity prices, none of which you have any control over.
Before the industrial revolution life was not a cake walk. Even basic things like having enough to eat, basic medical care, clothes, warmth and light were HARD to come by, but it's the struggle that makes it worth it. I realize I'm saying this as a white, heterosexual, pudgy, Western European male. In terms of material and societal wealth I might as well have won the lottery.
In terms of the meaning I find in my life I have lost.
You know how, in 3rd grade, they teach you that atoms look like little solar systems, with a nucleus in the middle like the sun and electrons orbiting like planets. Then you get into high school and they say "Well that model isn't great, it's more like a tiny tiny spec in the middle of a huge amorphous cloud somewhere in which you might find the electrons"?
"Maslow's Pyramid" is that 3rd grade "we had to start somewhere" model, and in a world full of people with bachelor's degrees who took Psych 150 and nothing else that's the best they got.
If Maslow's Pyramid was a law of physics, then hunger strikes would be impossible. That is someone putting their need for community above their need for food.
On a less extreme example, some people will skip dinner to hang out with friends, or hold their piss while trying to achieve a world video game speed run. Some people feel little to no need for romance, others can't function properly without their partner. Some people see popularity as a basic need, others are hermits. Going out to a bar where you might get roofied in order to meet people puts social needs above personal safety.
Because a lot of people have been through Psych 150, I can usually explain the Principle of Readiness to someone the fastest by just mentioning Maslow's Pyramid. Ed Thorndike described several principles related to learning, and the principle of Readiness says that students who are hungry, thirsty, tired, in poor health, have obligations to fulfill outside the classroom etc. do not learn well. Maslow would say the lesson is probably fulfilling a need very high on the pyramid, but the student has unfilled needs near the base. I would personally also add to this that students don't learn well unless they understand what of their needs the lesson will help them fulfill; they need to know why the lesson is important to THEM in THEIR lives. Which is why I'm convinced a teacher with students who ask "why do we need to learn this" is an abject failure.
Yeah but you can still pursue other goals. Help a charity or work on an important project with people and the meaning is there. It's just not forced on you as part of surviving anymore
Not even "a charity" but those are fine. A mutual aid network is fulfilling. My community has formed an informal, unorganized mutual aid of sorts. We don't necessarily agree with politics or personalities but when we have something to share, time, labor, food, ideas, a few of us are very responsive. The rest work and have children so they're kind of already plates full, thanks.
The goal of white supremacy is to make whiteness the default race or the only race. As such, white people are necessarily deprived of racial and cultural identity. White people in the new world and the imperial core need to invent cultural identities like "nerd", "scene", or "punk" in order to have one. White Supremacy is cultural nihilism.