What we need is Slack!!!

Who really likes their job?

I read two friend update things when I signed into MySpace today.
One said she "isn't sure why she's at work today" the other said "is at work" and mood was "sad"

It made me wonder how many of us really like our jobs and can get up full of beans and motivation even on a freezing cold January morning and not think "Oh crap, is it only Wednesday? I don't wanna get up. I don't wanna go to work"? I really hated my last job. Even on a lovely sunny spring morning it was still a chore to get up, get dressed in "work-acceptable" clothing and drive three quarters of an hour to work. I hated being there. I hated having to smile and be nice with the customers even when they were rude, surly, obnoxious, inconsiderate and abusive to me. I hated the long hours and the lack of holidays. We in the UK get the least amount of leisure in Europe (whatever happened to the three extra bank holidays we were promised by our elected representatives?). We're also the most spied-upon population in Europe - on a par with the USA and the old Soviet Republic. (How's that for losing the thread?)

On the subject of work and free time, I've just read a fascinating article by Rob Black on the Abolition of Work. He believes human beings in today's work-oriented society are little better than slaves and what we need to be fulfilled as individuals is play. The concept of "leisure" is insufficient - a paltry amount of time off to recover from work, to get ready for work, to travel to and from work, worry about work and try to forget about work. He reckons that a truly civilised and enlightened society should be aiming for full unemployment. This would allow each individual the freedom to explore their creativity and true talents: to do what they enjoy - but not all the time to the exclusion of all else which is what happens to the most fortunate of us at the moment. Everyone would be able to realise their True Will. Go look at his essay here http://www.whywork.org/rethinking/whywork/abolition.html it's really interesting!

I've been reading bits of my other half's e-books about work and the consumer society and wonder, how the hell did we get so screwed up. What happened to us to make us think we have to work in some boring unfulfilling job to make money so we can buy stuff? When did having stuff become the number one life goal instead of being happy and fulfilled?

If having stuff really made us happy and fulfilled why are so many rich buggers so unhappy? Why are shopaholics so miserable? There are plenty of preachers out there who reckon it's because we're not religious enough and it's all the fault of single mothers, delinquent kids from broken homes, sex and violence on TV and people not going to Church/Mosque/Temple enough.

Spirituality is one part of the picture for sure, but not the only thing. There are folks aplenty I'm sure who do go to Church and who have lots of stuff who are still deeply unhappy with their lives.

According to a review of John Bowe's book "Nobodies: Modern American Slave Labour and the Dark Side of the Global Economy" in the Texas Observer, (by all means check it out for yourself here http://www.texasobserver.org/article.php?aid=2654. It makes for disturbing reading and is a much needed wake-up call to all us overfed wage-slaves in the West) our consumer culture is ruining the lives of millions of people, particularly illegal immigrants and workers in poorer countries who work for little money in appalling conditions to provide the "stuff" that we're told we should have to be happy and fulfilled.

What we need is responsibility not what Bowe calls "plausible deniability." Instead of being apathetic (a don't know, don't care - it's not my problem attitude) about where our "stuff" comes from and how it's produced, we need to think about it and ask ourselves "Am I ok with this?" If you're concerned, instead of sitting back and thinking "well, I'm just one person, what can I do?" try networking - there are plenty of people who are thinking exactly the same. Find ethical producers or at least stop using the unethical ones (Walmart are one of the worst offenders), write to your elected representatives. The more people who make a stand and say they're not prepared to be responsible for the suffering of others, the more notice they'll have to take.

Think about downsizing - think about what "stuff" you really need and what you'd like to do if you weren't working a 70 hour week in a job you really don't like to have "stuff"

It's not easy. It won't be quick. Hell, I'm just as guilty as everyone else of ignoring the problem and shopping where it's most convenient instead of where it's most ethical.

But if society changed and ethical consumption became easy and convenient, we'd all be doing it. And that is part of the problem. The big corporations would be screwed if everyone went ethical. It would lead to massive haemorrhaging of profits, the economy would go into free-fall, millions would lose their jobs, there would be a complete breakdown of society.

Is that necessarily a bad thing, though? What is the purpose of society? Whom does it serve? Lets see. It provides systems and structures to organise communities and regulate people and their activities. It serves the big corporations whose profits come from rampant careless consumerism. It creates boxes to put people in and systems to keep them in their allotted places - selling dreams to keep people desirous of more and more stuff. Creating benefits and overpayment repayment systems to ensure that no matter how much your pay goes up, you are never actually any better off. You have to be an exceptional person to overleap your level in the social strata - and there are always famous faces - entrepreneurs who "made it big" with one brilliant idea for a new innovation. Lotteries, talent shows and the "celebrities" who achieved it to keep people dreaming that it could happen. Orwell's dystopian vision "1984" had lotteries in which the big prizes were never won by real people, but there were always plenty of small prizes so everyone knew someone who'd won a bit. Just like in real life - who knows anyone who's ever won more than a couple of hundred, two or three thousand tops?

Would it really be such a bad thing if something so limiting, uncaring and unjust as today's society got broken so bad we had to start over? A whole new society like Rob Black describes: a ludic culture. Maybe not to such extremes - after all, someone's got to keep the trains running - but a society that respects everyone's right to be themselves and allows us time to be ourselves just as hard as we can be.

How to get there from here?

Love and slack,
Lily the Pink