this post was submitted on 16 Apr 2024
403 points (92.4% liked)
Antiwork
503 readers
13 users here now
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
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
How do babys survive? They can not hunt nor forage. Even more so we have remains of a person with Down sydrom who died in his mid 20s having been unable to walk on two legs for at least a decade before he died. So clearly unable to surive on his own. Also hunter gathers ususally work 15 hours a week. At least modern ones do that. Agriculture is able to provide food for more people, but tends to do so with a lot more work until relativly recently
The Problem with things, like the 15 hour per week claim, is that work isn't comparable in different forms of society.
The article for example never specified, what it defines as work. Is only the time spent hunting or foraging 'work' ?
Is making & maintaining tools work? Is learning a new skill from an elder work? Is experimenting with a new technique work? Is keeping the campfire alive work? Is keeping watch for dangerous animals work? All of which are work in today's society. Hell, over half of my work week is spent 'socialising'. Do I only work for 20 hours a week now?
Every article or study, that I know of, that claims that people in the past worked significantly less, fails to specify what it defines as work.
How many hours a week working on fundamental science, art, entertainment, medicine, engineering, etc. If you drink from the fountain of modern society, you get the benefits and you share the burden of the costs.
Life is unfair. There are no free rides, nor should there be.
And this attitude is exactly why life is unfair. Doesn't have to be like this, there's other ways of organizing societies than "fuck you, I got mine" and not just hypothetically; welfare systems are a thing in many countries you know. Or at least were until relatively recently, thanks to people who think like you.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news my dude. I didnt make it this way. I assure you what I think doesn't amount to squat.
Sitting around and wishing for the good old days is just an insane notion of looking at the past with zero appreciation for the magic of the modern world.
I wish the world was fair, truly. It sucks, but realism feels like a better place to hang my hat.
Yes, better just lie down and take it rather than aspire for something better
That does seem to be what 'antiwork' is about.
You saw through my clever charade!?
Look, I hate the man as much as anyone. It is just that I got a job and a mortgage and a family and I woke up one morning old and the man.
Quoth the poet Ben Folds, "everybody know it sucks to grow up"
I got a master's of science with a 4.0 GPA and no one will give me a job after months. I did my part. Fuck society.
Yeah, the big lie. Do what we tell you and it will all work out. Nope. Work + Luck. Society isn't out to get you, it is just ignorant of you.
I had to go to school at 17. My entire childhood I was told that my life would be over if I didn't and I would be set if I did. Couldn't get a job after I finished undergrad, but I still needed to put food on my table. I could get federal loans if I went back to school, so I did.
Another shit part is for some people it does work, and they never have an inkling that there is another side. So they sit there all "bootstraps" this and "self made" that. Their parents fed them the lie because they didn't know any better or worse, did. But it all worked out and now they are conservative.
Look, you are intelligent and able to communicate clearly. That is more than a great many adults I run into. You can find your way in this world, but it is going to be your way and not your parent's.