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
Ok I'm all for not wage-slaving it up for the benefit of billionaires but this is just stupid. No matter the economic system people still need schedules and ways to wake up at specific times.
"I can't go to sleep at a reasonable time to wake up when I need to, so I'll make my silly complaints sound grandiose and important. "
Why do they need to sleep at a 'reasonable time' as determined by someone who has no access to their body or mind? What's wrong with being a night person?
We don't need to all wake up at the crack of dawn and cater to the panicky little day people who can't stop staring at the minute hand.
The responses to this thread on SLRPNK of all places just shows how far gone we are. Even here people default to a commerce-centric worldview where the idea of not waking up to an alarm is a ridiculous proposition.
A world in which humans allow their bodies to sleep and wake up naturally? Don't be absurd!How would we prioritize meaningless toil over our own health and happiness if we entertained our bodies' own internal clocks?
Waking up in a panic is your duty as a primate.
As far as I can tell no one was defending a "commerce-centric" worldview. Even in a world without work you still might want to wake up at a particular time. Maybe you slept late, maybe you need to wake up earlier than you naturally do, you might not have daylight to wake you, predisposed to sleeping loads, etc.
Well, I used a different D word than 'defending'.
Defaulting to a commerce-centric worldview in this context means being completely mystified as to why anyone might not want to wake up to an alarm, and finding a society that puts human needs first ridiculous.
The reality is that centering our lives around buying and selling things at the expense of untold human misery is itself ridiculous. Unfortunately it's also extremely prevalent.
Yes, clocks are important for many people. There's a significant percentage of our population that prefers living in the type of structured lifestyle that clocks enable. But the history of clocks is not neutral. This Historia Civilis video goes into detail about the proliferation of clocks and how they were used to erode workers rights.
Clocks can be cool, being punctual is a good habit. But there is a valid point to be made about the tyranny of keeping time. It doesn't work for everyone, and we do ourselves a disservice by not acknowledging that there's a benefit (for some) to treating time fluidly.
Why is that?
I think it's about the word "alarm"
Still don't get it. There's probably something obvious to you that I don't share.
Sorry. An alarm starts when something bad happens, like a fire alarm for example. When you have an alarm going on each morning because you have to go to work, then work is something horrible.
Maybe the association came easier to me because my native language has a special word for "alarm clock" so I learned the term as an adult and have this association ever since and don't take it for granted
Not for everyone, but I think it's important to note that there's other ways of waking up that are much less disruptive.
I've used my watch for quite some time. It has a pretty prominent vibration alarm, which I'll gladly take over any sharp/sudden noises.
I'd like to get another daylight alarm someday, and retrain myself to that way of waking up again.
The audacity of a society that respects punctuality! Gasp!