Really the last one: on the anti work movement, and being "anti work"

 So, this is the one thing that does fire me up, and since it relates so strongly to my string of burnout posts, I figured one last post on this would be worth discussing.

So I came across this article today about the state of the anti work movement, and I see a lot of myself in this.

Essentially, it notes how the anti work movement didn't actually arise overnight, but came to being after work has failed a generation of people. many of us have been coerced into giving up large parts of our lives for a pittance, and many people aren't happy.

Traditional labor activists, they still believe in labor, and believe in work, and simply support striking to improve conditions. A lot of leftists are also in this camp. Marxists believe capitalism alienates people from their labor, but they still believe in labor.

But, the failures of capitalism have done something else to this generation of people, and that is, they alienated a lot of people from work completely. And quite frankly, I'm one of these people.

The demand start small. You want better pay, you want better working conditions. but I think workers are coming to terms with the concept that after they spend so much time fighting for incrementalism, they still have to show up for work on Monday morning. And now their boss hates them for organizing for better conditions.

This is, by the way, why I'm burned out even with the left on traditional labor stuff. Much of what they support is just incrementalism like this. Yay, now pay is $20 an hour instead of $15. But hey, I still gotta spend 40 hours a week working.

So now, people are starting to wake up, and realize the rat race isn't all its' cracked up to be, and that people are alienated and turned off from it. It isn't just a matter of finding your passion, or improving working conditions, it's work itself. People are starting to realize their position as a de facto slave in society, and starting to fight back against it. Not everyone, but this stuff is taking off. If anything positive comes out of this crapshow it's this. And I honestly believe, as one of these people, once you start seeing the farce of work as it is, there's no going back. That's the thing about plato's cave, once you leave, you can't go back. You don't want to go back. You can't go through the motions, because it's so fake, and you realize it's fake. It's like going back to some kid's amusement park as an adult and being like "yeah, this sucks, why did I ever enjoy this?", maybe the nostalgia is there deep down, but you can't just go back and relive it in the same light.

I've kind of realize this about certain things in my life. Once you leave the cave, there's no going back. That illusion of a simpler reality is gone. 

If the great resignation wakes people up, good. It's the one hope we actually have in my opinion of building a better society. Incrementalism isn't going to do it. Traditional politics isn't going to do it. And maybe the reason I'm so turned off from the mainstream is precisely because I am this burnt out and bitter anti work person who just feels alienated and ignored by the mainstream. 

I don't want to spend huge portions of my life working. I really don't. I see work is the ultimate waste of time. It's time stolen from me I can never get back. And the fact that people aren't more outraged by this fact, and that this isn't the #1 issue that all of us, regardless of class, creed, or political affiliation, to solve, just..baffles me. And then I see people pushing all these other causes and I just don't care. How can i, as long as this giant weight is hanging over me? 

The real progress this generation has to make, it's regarding these issues. The modern work week is a relic of the 20th century. We should strive to minimize the amount of work that exists in society, so that we can be free to spend our time, actually doing things. The fact that we spend the same amount of time, if not more time working, than our grandfathers and great grandfathers who lived around 80-90 years ago, is just sad. We shouldn't have to live like this any more. And despite my malaise, this is the one thing I have an insatiable will toward resolving. Because it's something that impacts us all on a personal level.

We all have to wake up in the morning, and spend at least half our time working, for a majority of the days we exist. It's sickening. We should be protesting against THIS great sin of humanity. And the fact that these politics are still so not mainstream, is why I can't tolerate mainstream politics. 

This is also why I'm an indepentarian. Rousseau was right when he said," man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains." Indeed we are. And the one issue that I do care about, is liberation from that. And the best way we can do that is by supporting basic income and medicare for all, and that is what I shall focus on. The way to free people from labor is to ensure their basic needs, forcing the market to adapt and automate jobs, and driving the price of labor to what it really deserves. After all if people have to inconvenience themselves taking hours of their time to serve someone else, they better be paid for it darned well.