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The "virtue" of hard work is just a shallow manipulation tactic devised by those in power. How is this an argument against what ekianjo wrote? Yes, there has (
by nhaehnle 13y ago
The "virtue" of hard work is just a shallow manipulation tactic devised by those in power.
How is this an argument against what ekianjo wrote? Yes, there has (almost?) always been a privileged upper class that had much more leisure than the masses. Still, the fact remains that living standards would have been lower had a majority of the population not worked their asses off.
Should the distribution of work be adjusted? Absolutely! In our current world, inequality is so high, and to a large extent unjustly high, that it's sickening. But there is still a whole lot of work that needs to be done to maintain our living standards.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- dang 13y agoWhat's sickening is how brainwashed you are. Personal attacks like this are absolutely unwelcome on Hacker News. People who do it repeatedly—or even once, if they don't have a history as a valuable contributor—will be banned.
- mkingston 13y ago- Should the distribution of work be adjusted? Absolutely! In the modern world, I unequivocally agree with this statement. But, I find this to be a fascinating question when applied to less recent periods throughout history. Would we be where we were today if the ancient Greeks didn't have a ruling class and a slave class? If the Europeans didn't have the same 1500 years later? It's largely been the working (I use this term quite loosely: consent is not implied) class that has enabled (a small number of) the leisure class to make the majority of societal and technological progress. How true is this today? I'm willing to bet those making technological and societal progress are now largely in the working class. Sorry my comment is inconclusive; it's something I've been long meaning to investigate further.
- nhaehnle 13y agoI have asked similar questions myself in the past; I agree that it's a fascinating (and fascinatingly uncomfortable) topic. Like you, I don't have a conclusive answer.
- herokusaki 13y agoWhat you consider in your comment echoes Bertrand Russell's famous essay In Praise of Idleness. Russell, however, goes farther and outright states that >Leisure is essential to civilization [...] http://www.zpub.com/notes/idle.html http://www.zpub.com/notes/idle.html