Boss and worker

Precisely, that's capitalism for you.

Enjoyable work

What makes one's job enjoyable? What makes us work hard? I think essentially one needs to be intimately and emotionally involved in the product you're creating or the service you're providing.

Our society tends to assume how hard we work, how much effort we put into something, is closely related to how much we get paid for that work. I disagree. I reckon what motivates people to work hard is not so much how much you get paid, but rather the sense of achievement in producing something that other people really appreciate together with the knowledge that not many others have the requisite skills to do what you've done. It's working towards some goal, and for others to exclaim "wow" when they see what you've done. It's pride in producing something, or providing some service. And this in turn will make one very much enjoy the work they're doing.

But much work under capitalism tends to be repetitious just doing one task. You're not creating the object, only part of it. Hence you're a cog in the overall machine as I said in this blog entry. And the object is not ours. It belongs to someone else. Hence we are alienated from that we are creating, or the service we're providing.

Are You A Slave To The System?

An interesting cartoon about the world of work.

Industrial society will inevitably lead to work which is dull, repetitious, which renders us as meaningless cogs in a machine where our functional role is the only thing which is important, and our humanity, our needs, our emotions are superfluous and ignored. We become alienated from our true humanity with a large proportion of our lives diverted to this meaningless activity called "work" where we constantly clock watch, hoping that 5pm and the weekend quickly roll by so we can let our hair down. Thus we are effectively wishing our lives away. All this is somewhat ameliorated by the camaraderie of the workplace, but all in all capitalism is deeply inimical to our deepest yearnings and desires.

That which is inimical to our yearning souls

I don't really like the idea of a job where you're working for someone else from 9 to 5 and you don't find the work interesting at all, but find it dull and repetitious. The type of work where you occasionally look at your watch and hope 5pm soon comes round. And the weekend! Wishing our lives away. Then feeling gloomy on a Sunday evening as it's soon going to be the start of another week.

The thing is we live finite lives. Maybe there's a "life after death", and I think there is. But maybe I'm wrong and there isn't. But while we're healthy is it really a good idea to spend most of our daylight hours hoping that the evening and weekend will soon roll round?

There's making friends and the general camaraderie with work colleagues. And there's the issue that we all need to have money! But the point I'd like to make is that there seems to be something fundamentally wrong and unsatisfactory about this whole arrangement. Something fundamentally wrong about the way modern society works. Unsatisfactory and unfulfilling and ultimately dispiriting to our yearning souls.

Your Job Is Pointless

An interesting article:

Your Job Is Pointless

I think capitalism and what it entails is inimical to our fulfilment -- that which truly makes us happy. Even for those who do comparatively well. That makes me "left wing" I guess? On the other hand I'm extremely hostile to political correctness -- the fact that people are not allowed to express their honest opinions etc. So that probably makes me "right wing"? I think these left and right wing labels are largely meaningless.