Thanks, Brian, for your very supportive response. I was not aware of the Lewis autobiography and will get hold of it.
Thank you. Selma ----- Original Message ----- From: "Brian McAndrews" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Selma Singer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, February 05, 2003 10:44 AM Subject: Re: [Futurework] The world of work > Hi Selma, > Thanks so much for this profoundly important entry. It connects > powerfully with much of Ray's writing and the work of Rupert Ross > that Ray shared with us. I know this joy. I just spent an hour and a > half with twenty five 19 year olds who want to become teachers. We > explored R.D.Laing's little book "Conversation with Children". Time > disappeared as the insights of young children allowed us to see our > world in such a different light. I think you know what I mean. > If you aren't aware of it then here is a little gift of thanks: C. S. > Lewis' autobiography "Surprised By Joy". > > Take care, > Brian > > > > > > >Harry responded to my comments about the capitalistic context causing > >individuals to be treated as commodities. This seems an appropriate place to > >try to describe some of the ideas discussed by Dorothy Lee in the little > >book I keep referring to *Freedom and Culture* > > > >You will see that this discussion is very closely related to a post I sent > >yesterday with a quote from David Bohm's *Wholeness and the Implicate Order* > >and you will also see that it is directly related to the recent discussion > >on this list of who should clean the toilets. > > > >Lee has a chapter entitled 'The Joy of Work as Participation'. She writes of > >having made a discovery while she was working on a Christmas present for one > >of her children on Christmas Eve when it was very late, she was exhausted > >and "I was working against time, wishing I were in bed." > > > >She also speaks of the conflicts she was experiencing at this time, trying > >to balance her work as an anthropologist with her responsibilities to her > >two children, her husband and her home. She felt guilty about neglecting her > >professional work and needed to justify whatever she did for the family; > >making a blanket for the doll crib of her 3-year-old daughter seemed > >justifiable because she couldn't afford to buy it. > > > >"As I sewed this Christmas Eve, I was suddenly astonished to discover that I > >had started to add an entirely unpremeditated and unnecessary edging of > >embroidery, and, simultaneously, I was aware of a deep enjoyment in what I > >was doing. It was a feeling that had nothing to do with the pleasure the > >work would give to my daughter on the morrow; it had nothing to do with a > >sense of achievement, or of virtue in duty accomplished. And I knew that I > >had never liked to embroider. There was no justification for my work; yet it > >was the source of such a deep satisfaction, that the late hour and my > >fatigue had ceased to exist for me. > > > >At this moment of discovery, I knew that I was experiencing what it meant to > >be a social being, not merely Dorothy Lee, an individual; I knew that I had > >truly become a mother, a wife, a neighbor, a teacher. I realized that some > >boundary had disappeared, so that I was working in a social medium; that I > >was not working for the future pleasure of a distant daughter, but rather > >within a relationship unaffected by temporality or physical absence. What > >gave meaning to my work was the medium in which I was working-the medium of > >love, in a broad sense. So far, my rationalization and justification of my > >work had obscured this meaning, had cut me off from my own social context. > >It suddently became clear to me that it did not matter whether I was > >scrubbing the kitchen floor or darning stockings or zipping up snowsuits; > >these all had meaning, not in themselves, but in terms of the situation of > >which they were a part. They contained social value because they implemented > >the value of the social situation. > > > >This was a tremendous discovery for me, illuminating in a flash my > >experience and my thinking. My mind went immediately to the Tikopia, about > >whom I had been reading, and I said to myself, 'This is the way the Tikopia > >work.' I had been puzzled about the motivating forces in the life of the > >Tikopia. These were people who were without organized leadership in work, > >yet who carried out large undertakings. And without any authority to impose > >legislation and mete out punishment, the business of the village was carried > >out and law and order were maintained. Raymond Firth, the ethnographer, > >answering the unspoken quesitons of western readers, spoke of obligations, > >duty, fear of adverse opinion, as motivations. I did not like his choice of > >words, because he spoke of the obligation to perform unpleasant tasks, for > >example, and yet the situations he described brimmed with joy. Now I saw > >that the Tikopia did not need external incentives. > > > >This was all very well, but when I came to examine my discovery, I could not > >explain it in any rational or acceptable way. My society did not structure > >working situations as occasions which contained their own satisfaction; and > >it assumed the existence of aggregates or collections of indiividuals, not > >of a social continuum. I had learned to believe in the existence of a > >distinct self, relating itself externally to work as a means to an end, with > >external incentives and external rewards. yet it was obvious that if I got > >satsisfaction from participating in a situation, there must be some medium, > >some continuum, within which this participation can take place, If my family > >and I were aspects of one whole; there must be some positive apprehension of > >a continuity which made me an aspect of my family, not a separate member; it > >was not enough to say that my physical being and my sensory experience did > >not in themselves prescribe the limits of the self." > > > >She goes on to explore the meaning of self among the Tikopia; I'll leave > >that for another time. > > > >I would just ask the members of this list if they have ever experienced > >anything similar to what Lee describes as she was working on that blanket. I > >know I have and I have felt it as a gift of enormous proportions; mostly, in > >our society, it occurs in spite of the social and economic environment, not > >because of it. But I strongly believe that it is possible to stucture a > >society and to develop cultural values that make this kind of experience > >possible and common for everyone. > >> Selma, > >> > >> > > > > > >Harry: > > When was the labor of individuals not bought and sold. > >> > >> It seems to me this was always the case in Europe. So to blame capitalism > >> merely shifts focus from the real problem. It wasn't true when there was > >> plenty of free land available in North America. But that didn't last long > >> and soon there was no alternative but to work for what one could get - > >> which as Ricardo shrewdly noted moved downward toward subsistence. > >> > >> This is the case now. It is hidden now by all kinds of welfare > >> distributions. The social and political sciences spend their energies on > >> how much welfare will not be too much, but no-one seems to be > >investigating > >> why welfare is necessary. > >> > >> But, it's not capitalism that is the issue. This is just the latest > >> manifestation of the same old problem that has kept the peoples of all > >> countries in penury for centuries. > >> > >> Harry > >> > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > >> > >> Selma wrote: > >> > >> >Ray, > >> > > >> >I have been convinced, for many decades now, that Marx and some that > >> >followed him were correct when they argued that, in a capitalistic > >system, > >> >where the labor of individuals is bought and sold, those individuals > >thereby > >> >become commodities that are bought and sold. In such a society the > >general > >> >consciousness becomes one of people being commodities and therefore, the > >> >kind of connection you are talking about and the spirituality I have been > >> >talking about are not possible. > >> > > >> >I am thinking, in particular, of Erich Fromm's arguments in *To Have or > >To > >> >Be*. > >> > > >> >Selma > >> > >> > >> ****************************** > >> Harry Pollard > >> Henry George School of LA > >> Box 655 > >> Tujunga CA 91042 > >> [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >> Tel: (818) 352-4141 > >> Fax: (818) 353-2242 > >> ******************************* > >> > >> > > > > > >--------------------------------------------------------------------------- - > >---- > > > > > >> > >> --- > >> Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. > >> Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). > >> Version: 6.0.449 / Virus Database: 251 - Release Date: 1/27/2003 > > > > > > >_______________________________________________ > >Futurework mailing list > >[EMAIL PROTECTED] > >http://scribe.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework > > > -- > ************************************************** > * Brian McAndrews, Practicum Coordinator * > * Faculty of Education, Queen's University * > * Kingston, Ontario K7L 3N6 * > * FAX:(613) 533-6596 Phone (613) 533-6000x74937* > * e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * > * "Education is not the filling of a pail, * > * but the lighting of a fire. * > * W.B.Yeats * > * * > ************************************************** > > _______________________________________________ > Futurework mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://scribe.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://scribe.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
