Working for our own benefit or for the benefit of those we love is a natural inclination. Working for others, often harder and at a detriment to our own personal joy, without a comparable benefit to us and our family is not natural.
Agreed. Thats why I never made the claim that people have a natural urge to get yelled at by a shitty manager in an exploitative fast food gig. No one is saying that here.
The situation you describe is an illustration of alienation in the workplace, and this happens when workers lose the means of production. All of the comments in this thread tiptoe around this idea - for which there have been volumes of thought written btw.
My issue with the meme is that it is ahistorical and can distract people away from the concept of alienation. The capitalist class pays us not because we are “naturally opposed to working” (which is the thesis of the meme), but because it is unbearable to work in an alienating environment, which, as you perfectly explained, abstracts us away from the products we create, compartmentalizes our work, and violently separated us from working for our families or communities.
I think your point makes sense if the meme defines “work” as broadly as you do: “any labor.”. However, i read the meme to refer to “work for others.”. So i think your criticism of it is on shaky ground because that criticism assumes and requires the existence of an intent that was not present.
Work has a broad reach. Putting effort into something is work, be it something you enjoy, like building a chair or a table for example, or into a company project.
Sure, but in the context of the meme, “work” means “doing labor for someone else in exchange for payment”. Broadening the scope of the word “work” is valid, sure, but bound to cause confusion given the context.
Working for our own benefit or for the benefit of those we love is a natural inclination. Working for others, often harder and at a detriment to our own personal joy, without a comparable benefit to us and our family is not natural.
Not to mention to our physical detriment, sometimes acutely, always long-term.
Agreed. Thats why I never made the claim that people have a natural urge to get yelled at by a shitty manager in an exploitative fast food gig. No one is saying that here.
The situation you describe is an illustration of alienation in the workplace, and this happens when workers lose the means of production. All of the comments in this thread tiptoe around this idea - for which there have been volumes of thought written btw.
My issue with the meme is that it is ahistorical and can distract people away from the concept of alienation. The capitalist class pays us not because we are “naturally opposed to working” (which is the thesis of the meme), but because it is unbearable to work in an alienating environment, which, as you perfectly explained, abstracts us away from the products we create, compartmentalizes our work, and violently separated us from working for our families or communities.
I think your point makes sense if the meme defines “work” as broadly as you do: “any labor.”. However, i read the meme to refer to “work for others.”. So i think your criticism of it is on shaky ground because that criticism assumes and requires the existence of an intent that was not present.
Work has a broad reach. Putting effort into something is work, be it something you enjoy, like building a chair or a table for example, or into a company project.
Sure, but in the context of the meme, “work” means “doing labor for someone else in exchange for payment”. Broadening the scope of the word “work” is valid, sure, but bound to cause confusion given the context.