The Meaning of Work
If I hear the term ‘hardworking families’ once more I think I am going to scream, says Micheline Mason.
They apparently are the only people worthy of our respect and support. All the rest of us scrounging idle unmarried pretenders who contribute nothing and absorb huge proportions of the national income getting old and fat blobbing about our luxury sofas mindlessly watching flat screen televisions, smoking and drinking and refusing jobs whilst procreating as fast as we can, are to be made absolutely certain that we will not be tolerated any more!
Work. What does that word mean? Have a little think before you answer. Waking up in the night to feed your baby – is that work? Cooking an evening meal for your exhausted husband – is that work? Looking after your grandchildren free of charge so your daughter can go out and earn her living – is that work? Helping your elderly wife with Alzheimer’s disease to get dressed every day – is that work? Running a local Girl Guides company, volunteering at the Woodcraft Folk Camp, answering an emergency call for a voluntary lifeboat rescue, donating blood to save the life of a stranger, – is that work? Go on. Keep thinking. Painting pictures, writing books, poetry, songs that help people see life in new ways – is that work? Listening to all the broken hearted, bereaved, frightened, confused, disappointed people who need some attention to get their minds back – is that work? Playing with your children, doing your sick neighbour’s shopping, growing fresh food on your allotment – is that work? What about the millions of dinners shopped for, cooked, served up and cleared up afterwards every day for almost every member of the population by unpaid women for love – is that work?
The idea that the only work we do is limited to those few hours we spend doing a paid job is ludicrous. Retired people for example do a huge amount of voluntary work including 40% of all childcare.
Paid work under a capitalist system is always exploitative to some degree. We sell our labour in order for others to make a profit from it. That is how it works. Some of that work is essential, such as growing food, and some is useless, or even harmful, such as the manufacture of cigarettes. But the whole thing, the working of society itself, relies on all kinds of work, much of which is done for reasons other than money. A society in which everyone worked in paid jobs all the time until they were too old or disabled to work any more would simply fall apart.
8 comments
8 responses to “The Meaning of Work”
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Good points Michellene.
The real dependency culture is the rich and powerful – they are totally dependent on billions of working people turning up to work to create the wealth and to make societieses work.
The left is really poor on propaganda – just read the financial pages of the Guardian/times & you se e the rich in a parallel universe.
441 top executives at Barclays just given £1m each, Royal Dutcch She’ll profits down from £28b to £27b first quarter & what punishment CEO – £2.6m bonus!
Need a 30 hour working week without loss pay & earlier retirement plus a living income. Need to fre the ‘time poor’
Tories have philosophy u only have one life grab what you can for yourselves, we should say grab what you can for everybody – WE NEED TO FREE HUMANITY. As someone said in a meeting the left needs to work together – we agree on 90%
Micheline:
A great post….and very good to see a post on something other than the latest in’s and out’s of Left Unity. Let’s have more from other people.
I certainly agree with this, Micheline. Well written; I can see the steam coming out of your ears! You end by saying that a society where everyone performs paid work until they are used up would fall apart, it’s also a society few would want to exist in. I certainly don’t. ‘Aspiration’ isn’t just about ‘getting on’ ie making more money, it’s aspiring to have a life worth living.
One of the (few) things the coalition has been really efficient and successful at is changing public opinion about people in receipt of benefits. Thus enabling them to get some of their cuts through as easily as they have.
Seems to me a counter-campaign is needed here. To get the majority back behind the concept that we are all equally worthy of respect and support.
Ah yes, “hard-working folks”. That’ll be like the UK politicians, then, who will work a total of 130 days this year. Very hard work. What they diplomatically fail to mention is that all fruits of your “hard work” can be destroyed in an instant, despite your best efforts and through no fault of your own. Bastards!
MsG
Excellent piece although you forgot to mention in the list of “work” such arduous tasks as cutting ribbons, shaking hands, posing for cameras, playing polo, attending lavish dinners in your honour, free admission to sporting events, tax payer funded foreign tours, checking ones horses etc etc, all while being ferried around in absolute luxury. This is the true meaning of work if your name is Windsor. Pre jubilee bollox, there was a study caried out on how much so called work the palace squatters actually did and it showed an average of 11 hours a week were spent engaged on official duties, duties which include those mentioned above and yet they moan when people follow their example. The aristocracy are the real idle parasites in our society.
Good article Micheline,
This present system only gives recignition to work that can be bought and sold. They know nothing of value, only price.
I teach in a language school and one of my young European students learning English to go into business said one of the saddest things I have ever heard. We were discussing the definitions of ‘Art’. His answer – ‘It is only art once somebody buys it.’
BROKEN BRITISH POLITICS – WHY DISINFORMATION WORKS
Media manipulation in the UK today is more effective than it was in Nazi Germany ,because here we have the pretense that we are getting all the Information we want .That misconception prevents people from even looking for the Truth .http://brokenbritishpoliitics.simplesite.com
BROKEN BRITISH POLITICS – UK’S PUPPET GOVERNMENT – GRAVY TRAIN GRABBERS
Why do we need our Lame Duck Politicians when in fact the EU and Manuel Barroso control our Destiny .Cameron’s promise of a Referendum is while he is weighing up how the Lame Duck Gravy Train will be affected. France, Spain, Poland, Portugal, the Netherlands and Slovenia are all being given more time to complete their austerity plans .Barroso has told the UK it needs action on the Housing Supply and Rental Market ,more Affordable and Quality Childcare and Improving Youth Spending .Germany are being urged to allow wage increases to improve competiveness .No mention of Greece because the EU run it from within behind closed doors .Sovereignty – What Sovereignty .
http://brokenbritishpolitics.simplesite.com