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Notes -
I remember reading David Graeber’s Bullshit Jobs a few years ago. It felt strange after I got all the way through it. A lot of what he describes as such would be considered a “dream job” to me and a lot of the people I know. Not because that’s what they wanted to do, but because they can fulfill some labor quota that earns them their daily keep, so they can then turn around and do what they actually wanted to do. That’s not a “bullshit” job. That’s a free lunch.
The idea that if people simply were allowed to pursue what they wanted and their livelihood itself wasn’t permanently in hock to an occupation you hated, that civilization would get along just fine is asinine. Graeber I don’t think made that point himself directly in any part of his complete body of work, but it’s essentially an implication of what he is saying.
The problem we have with labor in our economic system is that the economy doesn’t really serve the interests of the community itself. We work to serve the economy. And that’s our “relationship” to “work.” There can be better conditions under which you will still have to labor, but it takes a lot of the physical drudgery out of things. That question goes more to reimagining the whole social/economic order though. Ironically, it’s one of the things “NatSoc’s” (or AuthCenter, whatever they call themselves) love to debate about so much.
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