Mondialisation : Le travail, pourquoi ? 1/2

Today, we shall address the question of Work... Since the 1980s, we have been hearing predictions about the end of work, Humanity having become so productive, that sociologists were all expecting time spent working to dwindle, eventually disappearing. How is it then that we find ourselves in the opposite situation? Having to work more... ...in order to earn more? First off, let us define work? Work is a modern concept derived from productivism, which results in our civilization having become the most labor-driven in all of Humanity's history. In French, the word "travail" (work) comes from Latin: "TRIPALIUM" meaning "an instrument of torture"... In antiquity, work was viewed negatively and limited to the poor and the slaves. Non-work, or Otium (Leisure) was, on the other hand, a source of freedom and happiness. In the Middle Ages, Christian ideology will invert these values, and transform work into a means of pleasing God. In spite of the strong obedience to power at that time, people worked only one ouf of every three days. With the advent of the industrial revolution and the development of capitalism, humanity will embrace work like never before. The production of wealth, in itself, then becomes the ultimate goal. With the control of daylight and time, Man can, from hereon in, work outside of natural hours. Fordism, Taylorism and Toyotism, new organizations of work, have now but one common objective: Producing MORE, by taking advantage of human power, coupled with machine power. Productivity explodes, wealth expands... and workers enter the Age of Consumption. While work, for the last 10.000 years, had been an intellectual or physical effort aimed at responding to a need, it insdiously became a JOB. That is, the subjection of an individual to another, in exchange for money. This money then allows the individual to purchase objects that others have produced. At first, this was positive! The poor will suddenly have access to consumer goods and the wealthy, will enrich their capital gains. Productivity continued to increase and needs were gradually superseded by desires. Quantities produced were such that, only two solutions were now possible: Either reducing work time, or developing a society based on consumption. The latter of the two options is what labour organizations favored. Each person then begins to imagine living in luxury, like their employer. Not long after the war, supervisors and workers agree with the social covenant that seeks to reconcile Productivism, Growth, Work and Consumption... in exchange for social rights. Consuming becomes a way of life and the condition that allows Employment to survive. How has Work, today, become a problem? First off: When addressing the issue of work, it entails consumption... ...which in turn entails the need for natural resources. Of course, our resources are not limitless. This implies an ecological and social footprint that Western society largely exceeds. In the U.S., this footprint is 6 times what it should be, which means we would need 6 planets if we were to all lead a similar lifestyle. Consequently, being too productive implies taking resources from the mouths of the poor. However, growth forces us to become even more productive every year. Not only are resources becoming scarcer, but they come mostly from countries that are far away. Productivism, which feeds upon work, thus encounters its first limitation: Material. Secondly, work is an essential step in a material economy. It allows the transformation of nature into usable products. During the lifecycle of a product, enormous quantities of pollution are produced. From chemical inputs in farming, to preservatives found in our foods, to deforestation, to oil pollution, garbage disposal, or climate changes, the whole of human activities generate this pollution and this activity is the result of OUR work. As such, many jobs, under the pretence that they are economically viable, are actually useless, even detrimental to our society. Strangely enough however, the more economically viable sectors also happen to be the most questionable. The oil industry, for example... advertising, pornography,.. finance, media and arms. While education, health... and social welfare... are becoming more and more privatized, victims of the necessary profitability. Sustainable development also appears incapable of cleaning up this overall system, growth continually accentuating our problems. Then, work has to be examined in terms of "Power". In exchange for your work, you earn a "buying power", which in turns allows you to benefit from the work of others. The problem stems from the fact that in situations of great social inequalities, buying power becomes a means for subjecting each social class, to the one below it. By buying a television set, you are using your power to put 200 individuals to work for its manufacturing, to have it shipped to a store, by airplane, and finally delivered to your home, by a subcontractor from a superstore. Everything is but a matter of power relationships, through different hiearchical levels, from richest, to poorest. Social inequality is fundamental within this system and, must even be preserved. Because the deeper the divide between wealthy and poor, the stronger the obedience of the weakest becomes, and the more we have to work to sustain the pyramid of consumption. The worst is... we are left with very little other choice. As such, the average French is, at the same time, victim and victimizer. Then comes Conformity. Of course, it would be so simple to simply work less by consuming less. But this is where media propaganda comes in. Materialism must be the standard for happiness, the only religion possible... No less than 500 billion euros are spent each year on advertisements, in order to create a need, where none exists. And it works! Our collective psyche is entirely subjected to our material desires. At least, for many of us. We exist, because we possess things. The thirst for gold, becomes the consequence of this consumerist craze. Of course, this propaganda was created in the U.S. But, "thanks to" globalization, the mainstream media aligned themselves accordingly. The various economic players are well aware that to perpetuate this dream, a docile population must be created, the latter having but one objective: buying products, THEIRS... Nothing new here! Remember good old Uncle Scrooge... starting with nothing, working hard... only to become the most powerful. While his nephew Donald was being exploited for a measly salary. The capitalist doctrine is taught to children, unwittingly, and our good old Donald, poor... forced to work... that's YOU, that's US! We all dream of attaining a babylonian way of life, detached from poverty, from our anxieties... from other humans, even death itself. In reality, this dream falls short. Because the number of suicides, of depressions, of drug or medication use, is constantly on the rise in our Western society. The more the media accentuates our desires, the sadder we become. Nevertheless.. we continue to believe that our happiness resides in the size of our bank account, the number of inches on our television sets, or the number of functions on our smartphones. Advertisement consists of a mirage atop a house of cards. A mirage which fuels our fantasies, its underlying pillar, alienating us, all while remaining invisible. This collective mania that has taken hold of us, prevents us from imagining life in society in any way but through competition, professional success, and access to money. Even education is developed according to this plan. Anyone who dares to stray off this path, runs the risk of being stigmatized... or of being deemed a dropout or a slacker. Surprising to realize that amongst the "wealthy" (very), the idea of not working is gratifying. It is a mark of success... ...of prestige, glorified by the media. However, living close to the poverty line is, on the other hand, perceived as demeaning, dirty, and a source of dependence. These perceptions are in complete contradiction with reality... In actuality, the rich are completely dependent on those that consume and thus, all workers, like you and me, who create what we need, for a salary, in the hopes of reaching, when our time comes, the top of the pyramid. As such, the rejection of materialist consumerism brings very negative conotations in society, since it represents a denial of society as a whole. End of Part 1.