Well with the savagely frayed state of the social safety net if you're not born rich, basically if you can't find work in California you're unlikely to get food stamps especially if you are able bodied and healthy otherwise than having the illness of having been born in the US past the date of 1965.
> especially if you are able bodied and healthy if you're abled bodied, and healthy, why should society bear a burden of giving you resources to live off long term? To exist means to locate the resources to live (such as food, shelter, etc). These resources can no longer be foraged like in the days of old, and thus, the allocation of these resources must come from a mechanism we call market and employment today. A so…
Why Americans Care About Work So Much
31–40 of 68 posts
Re: Why Americans Care About Work So Much
#32"Workism" comes from protestantism: Ora et Labora. America is a protestantic country, so I am not wondering why work is so important to them.
Re: Why Americans Care About Work So Much
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
Plenty of us still go to church every week!
What do I do if I want to "go back" to church but I don't believe? Speaking personally, and without spilling a few paragraphs of text here, it seems like that's where I am today.
I grew up attending an explicitly irreligious "church" which provided stimulation, moral instruction, community - all the things about church that really matter to one's life, but minus dogma. Maybe you could find something similar?
(it was the Ethical Society in St. Louis, MO, in case you're curious)
Re: Why Americans Care About Work So Much
#34Well with the savagely frayed state of the social safety net if you're not born rich, basically if you can't find work in California you're unlikely to get food stamps especially if you are able bodied and healthy otherwise than having the illness of having been born in the US past the date of 1965.
> especially if you are able bodied and healthy if you're abled bodied, and healthy, why should society bear a burden of giving you resources to live off long term? To exist means to locate the resources to live (such as food, shelter, etc). These resources can no longer be foraged like in the days of old, and thus, the allocation of these resources must come from a mechanism we call market and employment today. A so…
>To exist means to locate the resources to live
I didn't understand the meaning of this sentence; does "means" here points to the expression of "requirement" or of "signification" ? (I am not a native speaker)
Re: Why Americans Care About Work So Much
#35I very much agree with the author's thesis here. I think there is a kind of derangement especially among SV types about making every job about rescuing the world. And I think it comes from exactly this place of the human need for spirituality which is currently starved. But I had to screech the breaks for a second at this conjecture. > Their work was a matter of subsistence and necessity; it was not a race for status…
>Their spiritual frameworks provided direction on ... whom to marry and how to raise children.
As a non-religious man (no, not atheist: non-religious), I can definitely say that the lack of an overbearing deity or otherwise some sort of Code of Divine Conduct(tm) prescribing such things has led me to put such frivolous matters as marriage and family aside and very likely never touched upon again.
Objectively, I simply can't justify all the problems that come with associating with women in any capacity beyond that of simple friendship or professional relations (as in co-worker, etc.). I also see no need for myself to contribute another spawn to humanity, since humanity is clearly more than adequately providing for itself.
>This kind of modernist/progressive thinking towards history is probably the worst thing people take away from high school and undergrad history courses.
Whitewashing of history in general is abhorrent and patently worthless, we need to consider moments in history within the contexts of the time in order to derive anything of value to us in the present.
Re: Why Americans Care About Work So Much
#36I really want to quit but then who's going to pay for my wife's pregnancy? Healthcare and mandatory expenses can destroy one's life in America.
> I really want to quit but then who's going to pay for my wife's pregnancy? Solution: don’t have kids. You already knew this beforehand.
How to eliminate poverty
Re: Why Americans Care About Work So Much
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
Plenty of us still go to church every week!
What do I do if I want to "go back" to church but I don't believe? Speaking personally, and without spilling a few paragraphs of text here, it seems like that's where I am today.
This is a major, major issue.
Religious people say “there’s a god sized hole in your soul” maybe, but there’s defined a “church sized hole” in American society.
This becomes huge once you have kids. Churches run child care, schools, family activities.
They also service as hubs for ethnic groups.
They’re really important, but so far no secular group has filled the gap.
Re: Why Americans Care About Work So Much
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
What do I do if I want to "go back" to church but I don't believe? Speaking personally, and without spilling a few paragraphs of text here, it seems like that's where I am today.
I grew up attending an explicitly irreligious "church" which provided stimulation, moral instruction, community - all the things about church that really matter to one's life, but minus dogma. Maybe you could find something similar? (it was the Ethical Society in St. Louis, MO, in case you're curious)
Does it offer day care?
Re: Why Americans Care About Work So Much
#39>>I call this new religion “workism.”
The religion isn't new, its name is Protestantism and I find it supremely odd that the name 'Max Weber' does not show up in the article once.[1] This attitude towards work as something that is sacred isn't the invention of CEOs or managers, it's spiritual in nature and existed long before modern tech companies.
This is also important if one wants to deal with 'workism', because the fundamental issue is cultural. The religious values underpinning the American work ethic have been absorbed into secular culture to the point where most Americans probably aren't consciously aware where their attitude towards work comes from.
Another similar manifestation of religious ideas seeping into 'secular' culture is the millenarial AI hysteria. If you don't see where this stuff psychologically originates, make that explicit, and then deal with it you're never going to effectively change culture.
[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Protestant_Ethic_and_the_S...
Re: Why Americans Care About Work So Much
#40Bro, it's not workism. It's called enjoying your craft. My dad's running a trauma department. My mum's operating in a different department. Why? They're drawing from their pension fund in their late 60s and their two sons are successful. Why do this thing called work and not instead enjoy their lives?
It's because this definition of work as this thing you do so you can do other things is some people's view. In other people's view it's fun. You are a vocateur. Why deny yourself this?
Meaning comes from many places. An objective for oneself that I think might yield joy is to find the path you prefer and to lean into it hard. Just be yourself. If it is work, then give it to yourself. If it is family, then give that to yourself. If it is gardening, do what you must so you can garden.
Of course, happiness isn't monocausal and achievement isn't solely personal so there's many views into this multidimensional problem of meaning.