cross-posted from: https://kbin.social/m/anarchism/t/36133
this post was submitted on 03 Nov 2023
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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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I get it, but these substances aren’t “legal” in the same sense meant in the quote. Amphetamines, in the US at least, is a Schedule II drug. Meaning it needs to be prescribed.
If you’re using it in the same way you would cocaine, you’re abusing it. Which is still very much illegal.
That's not the point. The point is that workers are so dehumanized and alienated from their life essence that they need stimulants just function under the capitalist mode of production. The legality or the drug itself isn't the point. Had antidepressants and antianxiety meds existed in Marx's time he would have mentioned that instead. Indeed, elsewhere he talks about opium
Again, I get the point. But using a (mostly) illegal substance as the example is just silly. At that point why not point out that literal cocaine can be prescribed by a hospital?
Yeah, right?! Modern day laws are retroactive when discussing historical texts.
Everybody knows that.
I wasn’t aware the tweet in the image above was considered historical.
Well, Marx isn’t around these days so I figured that bit was historical.
Well, yes. But I wasn’t commenting on Marx, I was commenting on the fact that amphetamines (Adderall) is not widely considered legal. And if we want to get pedantic, it’s only loosely “cocaineish” because it’s a stimulant.
Caffeine would be a much more apt comparison if we are going to just go off the fact that it’s a stim: Used by the majority of the population, universally legal and accessible, virtually everyone is addicted to it, and without it most are incapable of social or professional interaction to the same degree.
As I said, I get the point trying to be made. But it misses the mark on many levels, and those misses are being hand waived for convenience.
legality isn’t a good marker of a substance being healthy. adderall is a drug which provides genetic therapy to individuals who have a genetic condition to help them be able to function under a society which demands more and more of the attention they barely have for themselves. adderall also comes with a black box warning, because it’s a drug which can be fatal if taken incorrectly or by people to whom it isn’t prescribed.
but sure, caffeine works too. maybe we could get the original tweet re-written.
The quote literally refers to “legal cocaine.” Which wouldn’t fit the mostly illegal adderall. That was my sole problem with the tweet, as my original comment said.
Not to mention, as someone who takes it, I take it explicitly because it lets me keep on top of general life stuff. Doing the laundry doesn’t take any more attention now than it did 100 years ago. In fact it takes much, much less attention. As does cleaning a house, or making food.
Unless I’m mistaken, the quote was about how the demands of corporations were going to push for more and more extreme ways to “keep up”. Which doesn’t for the actuality of when adderall is (supposed to be) prescribed.
adderall is basically legal cocaine though. I mean to say that I got a chance to try coke once and while interesting, it was the sort of thing that just made me wish i had my meds on me. meds last longer and no drip!
of course, not the same molecule, but it lights up similar pathways in the brain. of course, so does sugar.
I think you're missing the forest for the trees here mam