A nation of drudges

One of our counter culture heroes is a certain Maynard G. Krebbs,

    the beatnik character in a popular TV series,Dobie Gillis. Maynard was

    so allergic to traditional work that he would yelp " work ! " whenever

    the word came up in conversation.

        We can laugh at Maynard and dismiss him as an innocuous bum or

    paragon of the " wasted life ", not committed to the work ethic.

       True enough unproductive idleness can ruin one's character and

    life. But Maynard's truth is that there is such a thing as productive

    idleness - and that everyday drudgery can destroy your soul.

       Old fashioned sweat-shop jobs are disappearing but there are still

    enough of them to go around. I remember being employed briefly in one

    of those God-forsaken , Providence junk jewelry shops when I was 18 . A

    nightmare of a place patterned after those " dark, Satanic mills " of the

    early Industrial Revolution. It was the negation of every human need. A

    sign should have been posted at the factory door : " Abandon all hope ye

    who enter here ! ".

       It was probably well described  somewhere in the pages of Marx's " Das

    Kapital ". Stink and noise and the most demeaning, oppressive, brainless

    "labor " kept in line by the most the crudest, rudest, most ignorant floor

    bosses and foremen. Did you spend more than five minutes in the john ? You

    forfeit one half-hour pay!

        Did this Hell for the worker create Heaven on Earth for the bosses ?

      One day -after about a month of this nightmare of exploitation - I just

    punched out well before noon. Adios slave drivers ! I remember asking the

    wretched " old " man next to me at the bench : How long have you worked

    in this dungeon ?  37 years! he replied, almost proudly.

       " Well I'm not going to wait around for a gold watch my friend ," I

    said ,amazed by what human beings will endure to " earn a living ".

       The job paid health benefits, to be sure . But the irony here is that

    keeping it for any length of time only guaranteed that you would need

    those benefits- it would certainly destroy your physical health and do

    no favors for your mental health.

        I never again took such a horrible job . But I know that they are

    still out there just waiting for some poor soul -from the third world ?-

    desperate enough to accept them, even with gratitude.

        My conclusion about most jobs at mid-life is that they are nightmares

    of drudgery and exploitation. Yet because a job is a necessity, we have

    the unemployed almost shouting : " Thank God for slavery ! "

         Long ago I concluded that the 40 hour work week has become incompatible

    with a civilized life and the worker's participation in so called " democracy ".

       It may sound Utopian now but sooner or later there will be a demand for a

    30 hour work week- with no loss of pay.

        Presently in the United States the average worker considers himself

    lucky if he gets two weeks paid vacation per year, working the 40 hour

    week .

       When does he have the TIME to recover his humanity ?