I think that nails it, Carrol. It's not the supposed "economics" of hours and output that bothers the defenders of the status quo. It's the spectre of a world where people's lives no longer revolve around their jobs and, more importantly, where even free time is too extensive to be colonized by commercial entertainment. Marcuse again, "Civilization has to defend itself against the specter of a world which could be free."
It is important to emphasize that "could." There is the other possibility that people don't want to be free and would turn to drink, drugs and delinquency to dull the possibilities. That really is an empirical question, but people have their preconceptions based on theories of human nature. On Sun, Aug 14, 2011 at 8:15 AM, Carrol Cox <[email protected]> wrote: > On 8/13/2011 8:00 PM, Sandwichman wrote: > > Funny. You could go off on just about any other tangent without rebuke > from Mr. Rowe, but to mention reducing the hours of work (I said nothing > about "work-sharing") induced sheer panic. I wish more people on the > left would pay a little more attention to what really pushes the buttons > of those on the right. > > ----- > > I have nothing to contribute to the economic debate on this, but I > wonder if it is the "free" that induces the panic, and the panic is as > much political as economic, or perhaps mostly political. In discussions > of the student activists of the '60s there is rarely if ever any > recognition of the fact that in the late '50s and '60s the _time_ (= > living activity) of both students and faculty was much freer. (Fewer > students worked, and those who worked worked fewer hours, but I suspect > there were other factors as well.) I believe there is a proverb > connecting "idle hands" with the devil. Postone's chapter on the history > of time is relevant here. Few people seem to know that prior to the > last few centuries activity measured time, not time activity. Hence only > at the fall & sprig solstices was the medfieval hour 60 minutes long. In > the winter night hours were always longer than 60 minyutesd, day hours > shorter; reversal in summer. (Newton needed absolute time and absolute > space -- and he was conscious that he was inventing these strange > entities.) And hence my central point here: Only when workers begin to > struggle for shorter hours do they seriously threaten the capitalism as > a system, because the demand for shorter hours, that is, for more "free" > time is in fact a demand for freedom as I have define it: free time free > from any necessary link to the future. For that to be the case society > must offer its members generous retirement programs, thus eliminating > the need for savings -- savings by workers being merely postponed > consumption and therefore emblematic of time subordinate to the future, > not free. Whitman knew this ("I loaf and invite my soul"), and I believe > there is in the New Testament something about "take not thought for the > morrow. The fable of the grasshopper and the ant embodies capitalist > ideology. > > Carrol > > P.S. I haven't gotten back to Ted's post on this and I think for once > he and Imay have been in agreement. > > > > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l > -- Sandwichman
_______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
