Very true Ruth. This is what gave life meaning and purpose. To work hard and have something to show for it. To be tangibly connected to one's labor and see the fruits of it. Technological displacement and corporate drudgery have rendered work an apparition, with no emotional or psychological connection for the worker. This is why the hom…
Very true Ruth. This is what gave life meaning and purpose. To work hard and have something to show for it. To be tangibly connected to one's labor and see the fruits of it. Technological displacement and corporate drudgery have rendered work an apparition, with no emotional or psychological connection for the worker. This is why the homesteader, the small farmer, the self sufficient, even the tradesmen and women will have the best opportunities not just for survival, but to reconnect with one's labor and enjoy the true value of it personally.
I worked for a mid-sized corporation for three years, the first and only time in my life, having been self-employed for years. It was great for a while but then the work began to dry up in my team, mainly through managerial bungling. I was sitting around twiddling my thumbs and slowly going mad with boredom. I watched co-workers play computer games, watch sports or scroll through mainstream media sites as they wiled away their day, all for the sake of collecting that pay packet. Eventually I went to the CFO and asked for a redundancy, but she told me they didn’t do voluntary redundancies and she was sure they could find things for me to do. They moved me to a different team and I was happily engaged in work again. A few months later there was a ‘restructure’ and, as I’d put myself on the radar, I was made redundant. The manager of the team I had been moved into was so sad to lose me, she pulled a few strings and brought me back as a contractor from July 1st 2019. That, and the redundancy package, facilitated us moving out of the city to now living on 3.5 acres in the bush. And I’m still contracting to the same company, amongst a few others, nearly five years later. So that is where a strong work ethic got me. As you say Ruth, hard work builds character, and it also opens doors that laziness will never encounter. Now, off to collect the eggs from my delightful flock of free ranging, hard working chooks!
GC, have you ever read the essay "Feminism, The Body And The Machine" by Wendell Berry? Take a moment to do so if you haven't. I think it was written over 40 years ago now.
Of course there are machines out there that are very useful to us, but it's amazing how little wonder people have for how sophisticated our physical bodies are. Not to mention that they are intricately tied into our equally amazing minds.
Berry seems to have little in the way of exposure in the "online "community"". I'm surprised you've heard of him. His canon of work is deep and wide, and he is eminently quotable, though I prefer not to do it to the point of rendering his thoughts in snippets.
Have you read his treatise on "racism" in the U.S. - "The Hidden Wound"? It is sensitive and sophisticated, subtle and nuanced, and spoken from the voice of an authentic denizen of "The South".
I discovered Berry back in the 00's, and he made a pretty big impression on me because while I have not heard or read anything from him in years, his name called out to me from your comment.
I remember that Berry was not impressed with the Internet - he preferred (and presumably still does prefer) to stay in the "IRL" lane.
It's a funny coincidence that you have reminded me of Berry's preference for personal contact over "e-contact." Katie Hopkins talks about the same thing in this interview she just gave... she's largely talking about free speech, but about a third of the way into the video she says that she thinks social media is getting "old" and that people are going back to gathering in person. (Apparently, she won't even do zoom - which is interesting since she is a pretty big social media influencer.)
"Social media", besides being anti-social, is a planet-wrapping estrangement/panopticon machine. Am I the only one, aside from maybe Steve Cutts, who notices that there is no "social fabric" left, and everything here in "The West" is tantamount to an internecine war?
(And I utterly resent the "Like" button!)
Cheers to you and yours in this festive season nonetheless!
I had to look up Steve Cutts, but of course as soon as I saw his drawings I recognized them. He is brilliant.
You are depressingly correct about the social fabric. I have been thinking of our situation as a broken social contract, but I think reference to the social fabric gets more to the heart of the matter.
The "like" button is rather Pavlovian, and I'm sure it forms part of the "meta-data" that is being gathered on all of us by those creepy social engineering brigades. I am guilty of using it all the same... but explaining why would be a longer, loopier comment.
Wherever you are, I hope you're enjoying the increasing minutes of sun since the three-day hiatus of the Solstice-Christmas period. It's time to start looking up!
Very true Ruth. This is what gave life meaning and purpose. To work hard and have something to show for it. To be tangibly connected to one's labor and see the fruits of it. Technological displacement and corporate drudgery have rendered work an apparition, with no emotional or psychological connection for the worker. This is why the homesteader, the small farmer, the self sufficient, even the tradesmen and women will have the best opportunities not just for survival, but to reconnect with one's labor and enjoy the true value of it personally.
I worked for a mid-sized corporation for three years, the first and only time in my life, having been self-employed for years. It was great for a while but then the work began to dry up in my team, mainly through managerial bungling. I was sitting around twiddling my thumbs and slowly going mad with boredom. I watched co-workers play computer games, watch sports or scroll through mainstream media sites as they wiled away their day, all for the sake of collecting that pay packet. Eventually I went to the CFO and asked for a redundancy, but she told me they didn’t do voluntary redundancies and she was sure they could find things for me to do. They moved me to a different team and I was happily engaged in work again. A few months later there was a ‘restructure’ and, as I’d put myself on the radar, I was made redundant. The manager of the team I had been moved into was so sad to lose me, she pulled a few strings and brought me back as a contractor from July 1st 2019. That, and the redundancy package, facilitated us moving out of the city to now living on 3.5 acres in the bush. And I’m still contracting to the same company, amongst a few others, nearly five years later. So that is where a strong work ethic got me. As you say Ruth, hard work builds character, and it also opens doors that laziness will never encounter. Now, off to collect the eggs from my delightful flock of free ranging, hard working chooks!
Awesome and truly awarded 👍🏼
GC, have you ever read the essay "Feminism, The Body And The Machine" by Wendell Berry? Take a moment to do so if you haven't. I think it was written over 40 years ago now.
https://religioustech.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Berry-Wendell-Feminism-the-Body-and-the-Machine.pdf
Here is a brief little excerpt:
"My wish simply is to live my life as fully as I can. In both our work and
our leisure, I think, we should be so employed. And in our time this means that
we must save ourselves from the products that we are asked to buy in order,
ultimately, to replace ourselves.
The danger most immediately to be feared in “technological progress” is
the degradation and obsolescence of the body. Implicit in the technological
revolution from the beginning has been a new version of an old dualism, one
always destructive, and now more destructive than ever. For many centuries
there have been people who looked upon the body, as upon the natural world,
as an encumbrance of the soul, and so have hated the body, as they have
hated the natural world, and longed to be free of it. They have seen the body as
intolerably imperfect by spiritual standards. More recently, since the beginning
of the technological revolution, more and more people have looked upon the
body, along with the rest of the natural creation, as intolerably imperfect by
mechanical standards. They see the body as an encumbrance of the mind—the
mind, that is, as reduced to a set of mechanical ideas that can be implemented
in machines—and so they hate it and long to be free of it. The body has limits
that the machine does not have; therefore, remove the body from the machine
so that the machine can continue as an unlimited idea"
Have never read it. Looks interesting. Will check it out. Thanks!
Great words from the great Wendell Berry.
Of course there are machines out there that are very useful to us, but it's amazing how little wonder people have for how sophisticated our physical bodies are. Not to mention that they are intricately tied into our equally amazing minds.
Thanks for the link!
Berry seems to have little in the way of exposure in the "online "community"". I'm surprised you've heard of him. His canon of work is deep and wide, and he is eminently quotable, though I prefer not to do it to the point of rendering his thoughts in snippets.
Have you read his treatise on "racism" in the U.S. - "The Hidden Wound"? It is sensitive and sophisticated, subtle and nuanced, and spoken from the voice of an authentic denizen of "The South".
I discovered Berry back in the 00's, and he made a pretty big impression on me because while I have not heard or read anything from him in years, his name called out to me from your comment.
I remember that Berry was not impressed with the Internet - he preferred (and presumably still does prefer) to stay in the "IRL" lane.
It's a funny coincidence that you have reminded me of Berry's preference for personal contact over "e-contact." Katie Hopkins talks about the same thing in this interview she just gave... she's largely talking about free speech, but about a third of the way into the video she says that she thinks social media is getting "old" and that people are going back to gathering in person. (Apparently, she won't even do zoom - which is interesting since she is a pretty big social media influencer.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulO7M704fjQ
I have not read The Hidden Wound... but I will keep it on my wish list for used books. Thanks for the recommendation!
"Social media", besides being anti-social, is a planet-wrapping estrangement/panopticon machine. Am I the only one, aside from maybe Steve Cutts, who notices that there is no "social fabric" left, and everything here in "The West" is tantamount to an internecine war?
(And I utterly resent the "Like" button!)
Cheers to you and yours in this festive season nonetheless!
I had to look up Steve Cutts, but of course as soon as I saw his drawings I recognized them. He is brilliant.
You are depressingly correct about the social fabric. I have been thinking of our situation as a broken social contract, but I think reference to the social fabric gets more to the heart of the matter.
The "like" button is rather Pavlovian, and I'm sure it forms part of the "meta-data" that is being gathered on all of us by those creepy social engineering brigades. I am guilty of using it all the same... but explaining why would be a longer, loopier comment.
Wherever you are, I hope you're enjoying the increasing minutes of sun since the three-day hiatus of the Solstice-Christmas period. It's time to start looking up!
Yes...'tis a pity how little wonder we appear to have left in us.
Very well stated 👏👏
This sounds like the AI bot you just described
My comments are AI automated. The machine knows me better than I know myself.