Middle class lockdown prophet Joe Bageant links to a hefty review of The False Gospel of Work by Eugene McCarraher. Among the book’s bold claims:
- The work ethic’s boss is Mammon.
- We have a triune birthright: rest, product, and pleasure in work.
- Talking about consumerism is a way of not talking about capitalism.
- “Productivity” is a nihilistic ideal and a sinful waste of talent.
- “Efficiency” is an obsession posing as a virtue and a perversion of our discovery and creation of beauty in work.
- Contrary to the conventional wisdom, Catholic subsidiarity and universal socialism have proven quite productive and efficient.
- It isn’t about the means of production so much as the ends of productions.
- God’s own rhythm of work and rest is an ethic of play.
I’ve struggled my whole life trying to find a proper model of meaningful work.
What strikes me more than anything about the modern work world is how one must be a completely different person as work than in the rest of one’s life. In other words, work demands the forfeiture of integrity.
This was an excellent essay, very thought provoking and insightful (a little bit dense though). My appetite for further discourse on this topic is whetted.