[Andre]
He said:' It means Must Work! That is our purpose
in life'. What do you do with something like that as an 8-year old?
[Arlo]
I think we as a culture have (thinking about Marx
here a bit) accepted an artificial distinction
between "labor" and "art". Wait, someone else
besides Marx said something like this... think
his name was Bob or something. From that vantage,
your father's advice is despairingly cynical. But
from the other vantage (via Karl or Bob), it
points to beauty of human life that is "craft" or "art".
In the cynical vantage, a man toils to assembly
alien constructions he neither identifies with
nor cares about, spending the vast majority of
his life in misery so that he can "enjoy" a few
fleeting moments of play For the cynic, this is
simply the unfair and harsh reality of modern
life. We are slaves. Don't rock the boat, just
keep those oars moving and smile as the taskmaster whip slices your skin.
In the Marxo-Pirsigian world, this same man
crafts each of his creations as an artist paints
a landscape, he identifies with it and he cares
about it. "Labor" or "work" from him is not some
"means to an end" that he toils at while dreaming
of doing something he enjoys, as his labor is a
reflection, a part, an extension of his
enjoyment. For this craftsman, "work" and "art"
are inseparable, and the statement "must work"
becomes "must craft" or even "must create" which he does with love and care.
My point is that the cynic has accepted that
"work" is something to suffer, to endure, a harsh
reality of a slave-like existence. Make no
mistake, modern modes of production and labor
have fostered this, modern metaphysical views
have nurtured it, and authors taking long
motorcycle trips wonder why the garages of their
youth have morphed into the garages of the
present. "Identity" is the first casualty. We are
NOT our work, we believe. We are NOT our labor,
we are told. And so we turn away from our hands
and our craft and accept that who we are lies elsewhere.
"It is this identity that is the basis of
craftsmanship in all the technical arts. And it
is this identity that modern, dualistically
conceived technology lacks. The creator of it
feels no particular sense of identity with it.
The owner of it feels no particular sense of
identity with it. The user of it feels no
particular sense of identity with it. Hence, by
Phædrus' definition, it has no Quality." (ZMM)
Marx knew that our labor is our power. It is not
something we "do", but an extension of who we
"are". His concept of labor alienation is echoed
by that Bob dude in his Zen book. "People arrive
at a factory and perform a totally meaningless
task from eight to five without question because
the structure demands that it be that way.
There's no villain, no "mean guy" who wants them
to live meaningless lives, it's just that the
structure, the system demands it and no one is
willing to take on the formidable task of
changing the structure just because it is meaningless." (ZMM)
I'm not sure if your father was a cynic or a
Marxo-Pirsigian, but interpreting his words via
the illuminating light of the latter thinkers
makes his statement quite profound.
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