[continued from previous message]
but also to have something to do. But what kind of initiative does this
instill?
Let’s go back to global warming, one of the most serious crises facing
the planet. After decades of denial, politicians and businessmen have
finally swung into action to do something about it. And what are they
doing? Casting about for ways to cash in! Carbon credits, “clean” coal,
“green” investment firms—who believes that these are the most effective
way to curb the production of greenhouse gases? It’s ironic that a
catastrophe caused by capitalist consumerism can be used to spur more
consumption, but it reveals a lot about the kind of initiative work
instills. What kind of person, confronted with the task of preventing
the end of life on earth, responds, “Sure, but what’s in it for me?”
If everything in our society has to be driven by a profit motive to
succeed, that might not be initiative after all, but something
else. Really taking initiative, initiating new values and new modes of
behavior—this is as unthinkable to the enterprising businessman as it is
to his most listless employee. What if working—that is, leasing your
creative powers to others, whether managers or customers—actually erodes
initiative?
The evidence for this extends beyond the workplace. How many people who
never miss a day of work can’t show up on time for band practice? We
can’t keep up with the reading for our book clubs even when we can
finish papers for school on time; the things we really want to do with
our lives end up at the bottom of the to-do list. The ability to follow
through on commitments becomes something outside ourselves, associated
with external rewards or punishments.
Imagine a world in which everything people do, they do because they want
to, because they are personally invested in bringing it about. For any
boss who has struggled to motivate indifferent employees, the idea of
working with people who are equally invested in the same projects sounds
utopian. But this isn’t proof that nothing would get done without bosses
and salaries—it just shows how work saps us of initiative.
Let’s say your job never injures, poisons, or sickens you. Let’s also
take it for granted that the economy doesn’t crash and take your job and
savings with it, and that no one who got a worse deal than you manages
to hurt or rob you. You still can’t be sure you won’t be
downsized. Nowadays nobody works for the same employer his whole life;
you work somewhere a few years until they let you go for someone younger
and cheaper or outsource your job overseas. You can break your back to
prove you’re the best in your field and still end up hung out to dry.
You have to count on your employers to make shrewd decisions so they can
write your paycheck—they can’t just fritter money away or they won’t
have it to pay you. But you never know when that shrewdness will turn
against you: the ones you depend on for your livelihood didn’t get where
they are by being sentimental. If you’re self-employed, you probably
know how fickle the market can be, too.
What could provide real security? Perhaps being part of a long-term
community in which people looked out for each other, a community based
on mutual assistance rather than financial incentives. And what is one
of the chief obstacles to building that kind of community today? Work.
Who carried out most of the injustices in history? Employees. This is
not necessarily to say they are responsible for them—as they would be
the first to tell you!
Does receiving a wage absolve you of responsibility for your actions?
Working seems to foster the impression that it does. The Nuremburg
defense—“I was just following orders”—has been the anthem and alibi of
millions of employees. This willingness to check one’s conscience at the
workplace door—to be, in fact, a mercenary—lies at the root of many of
the troubles plaguing our species.
People have done horrible things without orders, too—but not nearly so
many horrible things. You can reason with a person who is acting for
herself; she acknowledges that she is accountable for her
decisions. Employees, on the other hand, can do unimaginably dumb and
destructive things while refusing to think about the consequences.
The real problem, of course, isn’t employees refusing to take
responsibility for their actions—it’s the economic system that makes
taking responsibility so prohibitively expensive.
Employees dump toxic waste into rivers and oceans.
Employees slaughter cows and perform experiments on monkeys.
Employees throw away truckloads of food.
Employees are destroying the ozone layer.
They watch your every move through security cameras.
They evict you when you don’t pay your rent.
They imprison you when you don’t pay your taxes.
They humiliate you when you don’t do your homework or show up to work on
time.
They enter information about your private life into credit reports and
FBI files.
They give you speeding tickets and tow your car.
They administer standardized exams, juvenile detention centers, and
lethal injections.
The soldiers who herded people into gas chambers were employees,
Just like the soldiers occupying Iraq and Afghanistan,
Just like the suicide bombers who target them—they are employees of God,
hoping to be paid in paradise.
Let’s be clear about this—critiquing work doesn’t mean rejecting labor,
effort, ambition, or commitment. It doesn’t mean demanding that
everything be fun or easy. Fighting against the forces that compel us to
work is hard work. Laziness is not the alternative to work, though it
might be a byproduct of it.
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**.
Source:
--- SoupGate-DOS v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
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