this post was submitted on 28 Sep 2024
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Antiwork
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For the abolition of work. Yes really, abolish work! Not "reform work" but the destruction of work as a separate field of human activity.
To save the world, we're going to have to stop working! — David Graeber
A strange delusion possesses the working classes of the nations where capitalist civilization holds its sway. ...the love of work... Instead of opposing this mental aberration, the priests, the economists, and the moralists have cast a sacred halo over work. — Paul Lafargue
In communist society, where nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity but each can become accomplished in any branch he wishes, society regulates the general production and thus makes it possible for me to do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticise after dinner, just as I have a mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, herdsman or critic. — Karl Marx
In the glorification of 'work', in the unwearied talk of the 'blessing of work', I see the same covert idea as in the praise of useful impersonal actions: that of fear of everything individual. — Friedrich Nietzsche
If hard work were such a wonderful thing, surely the rich would have kept it all to themselves. — Lane Kirkland
The bottom line is simple: all of us deserve to make the most of our potential as we see fit, to be the masters of our own destinies. Being forced to sell these things away to survive is tragic and humiliating. We don’t have to live like this. ― CrimethInc
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Whatchu think wage labor is? Companies lease you for your labor, and can nullify the contract agreement (i.e. fire you) at will. If you work for a wage, you’re a wage slave.
On the one hand, yes, I can see your point.
On the other hand, let's not minimize American prison slavery by saying "we're all slaves". If you strain the definition you can argue all workers under capitalism are enslaved, but even then, some forms of slavery are far more brutal and dehumanizing (and racist. Let's not forget racist) than others.
Yeah, especially since the majority of imprisoned people tend to be non-white (this is an issue with our justice system, I'm absolutely not saying non-whites do more crime, only they're convicted far more often due to a racist system. A great many are innocent.) this will turn into 1 to 1 a facsimile of slavery from yesteryear. Bunch of white landowners leasing cheap labor (suspiciously predominantly non-white) from people who have no other legal options. Gross.
It was this argument with my mom that helped me realize she was the sort of racist that doesn't think she's racist. We were talking about how black men tend to get a longer sentence for the same crimes than white men. Her stance was pretty much "well, they shouldn't have done the crime" and I'm like.... Mom. Unfair is unfair. Thankfully we're no longer close for other reasons.
Sorry to hear that, but good for you for making that decision.
Ah, I never meant to imply that “all slaves are equally treated just as bad”, thereby minimizing the suffering of others.
Of course some forms are far worse than others. And of course we want to help those suffering the most first and foremost.
I meant my comment as a solidarity statement. Not the straw man you crafted, apologies for the misunderstanding.
Slaves can't end their own contract at will.
You people will never understand the difference.
I mean yeah I can leave whenever I want…I can “choose” my master so to speak, but unless I want to starve to death I’m forced to choose a master.
It’s literally just a nicer form of slavery. If you have a gun pointed to your head with the option “choose a master or I pull the trigger”, is that really a choice? I’d argue not.
People in cooperatives are slaves? To whom exactly?
That's like living as another slave of a dictatorship, versus living as a free person in a democracy. In context I think they're talking about typical (dictatorship) corporations.
He is most likely talking about the typical corporations, but it doesn't mean he's right about pointing the finger at wages. Wage labor isn't the cause of wage slavery and neither is the existence of a company. It's the authoritarian company structure, which is systemic to capitalism, that is causing an unfair power dynamic between the employer and employee. That power dynamic is what creates wage slaves.
As far as wages are concerned you can get a wage and not be a wage slave. It comes down to whether the company is with an authoritarian (capitalistic) or a democratic (socialist) structure.