The work fetish

By Kim Do-hun

The mathematician and philosopher Bertrand Russell wrote an influential essay in 1932 titled “In Praise of Idleness,” where he envisaged a society in which people worked vastly reduced hours.

His argument was based on the idea that productive forces, at least in the West, were developed to the extent that work could be reduced while living standards maintained at their current levels. Remember, this was a world before the rise of Hitler. This was an epoch before nylon, Velcro or the microwave oven.

If productive forces were adequately developed in 1932 for a 4-hour working day as Russell suggested, imagine the working day of 2014. Alas, one glance at fellow travellers on the tube confirms that Russell’s ideal remains as distant as ever.

One is forced to ask two questions: (1) Is a shorter working day something we want as a society? and (2) Why can’t Russell’s dream be realized?

You might think that the first of these questions is a straightforward one, but I can assure you, it is not.

Russell noted in his essay that labor has come to be seen as a virtue in of itself. This is surely true in today’s society ― perhaps more so than when Russell lived.

It is virtuous for a teenager to sacrifice his memories of childhood for a few extra marks in an exam. After all, industry is to be encouraged. The child who entertains friends is wicked; the child who entertains numbers is righteous.

Indeed there are people who profit from such a conception of work.

Big business is founded upon such an idea. It doesn’t take a Marxist to realize that longer hours mean bigger profits. It is perfectly natural for the owners of such a business to desire the status quo.

Similarly, there are occupations which are, I’m sure, enjoyable. The artistic professions spring to mind as well as a few of the métiers libres.

Nevertheless, the fact remains that for the vast majority of people in this country, work is “awful.” Yes, it feels sacrilegious just to write about it.

Most people walk into their place of work in the morning and desire to leave as fast as possible. Their enjoyment derives from their home, the post-work drink, etc.

So why can’t labor time be greatly reduced? It is true that the world population has increased many-fold, but productivity has more than made up this difference.

I think the root of the problem is that our desires have increased at the same rate as productive forces. But is this natural? We are in a demand-driven economy after all.

A part of the reason must lie in a certain industry which artificially augments demand, namely the advertising industry. They, by their very nature, exist to serve the interests of the business class. They actively encourage us to work that extra job to buy that car, house, and so on.

But there is a historical element to this, a relic of a time when scarcity was a very real thing. One was compelled to break your back to feed your children. The aristocrats who appropriated most of the produce told the laborers that they were virtuous for working hard.

In other words, the collective mentality which lauds labor is one of the last vestiges of a lost time. Yet just as we shed the category of the concubine or lord, we can sound its knell. Let us value in our children their social development as much as their academic one.

The ability to enjoy leisure is one that needs to be polished as much as any other. Indeed what is the point of work without this promise?

The writer is currently on a gap year after studying at a secondary school in the U.K. His email address is dohunkim23@gmail.com.