Lost in Work: Escaping Capitalism (Outspoken by Pluto)
This is a profound psychological violence here. How can one even begin to speak of dignity in labor when one secretly feels one’s job should not exist? How can it not create a sense of deep rage and resentment? Yet it is the peculiar genius of our society that its rulers have figured out a way, as in the case of the fish fryers, to ensure that rage
... See moreDavid Graeber • Bullshit Jobs: A Theory
Admittedly, it’s not entirely our own fault that we approach our finite time in such a perversely instrumental and future-focused way. Powerful external pressures push us in this direction, too, because we exist inside an economic system that is instrumentalist to its core. One way of understanding capitalism, in fact, is as a giant machine for ins... See more
Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals
This new work ethic, in which work is expected to give us something like self-actualization, cannot help but fail.
Sarah Jaffe • Work Won't Love You Back: How Devotion to Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited, Exhausted, and Alone
Work has been stripped bare, unveiling that most of our current system of work is built on the idea of suffering, on pain. Consequently, people are either giving in (i.e. quiet quitting, anti-ambition), giving up (i.e. great resignation), or rising up and demanding change (i.e. anti-work, 4-hour workweek, UBI).