360 lines
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360 lines
17 KiB
Plaintext
A logo showing a blue circle
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Vlad-Stefan Harbuz
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Menu
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* [1]About
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* [2]Music
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* [3]Photos
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* [4]Books
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* [5]RSS
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Philosophy
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* [6]Resources: Philosophy of Work
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* [7]Alternatives to Wage Labour
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* [8]The Epistemic Implications of AI Assistants
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* [9]Our Schools Should Teach Communication
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* [10]Voting Regardless of Citizenship
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* [11]Effective Apologies
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Programming
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* [12]The Caring Programmer's Manifesto
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* [13]The Hare Programming Language
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* [14]Hare Regex Implementation
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* [15]Peony Game Engine
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* [16]Skeletal Animation
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* [17]clumsy computer
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* [18]Submodule GB01
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* [19]vegvisir
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* [20]pstr
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* [21]Dithering
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Languages
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* [22]Japanese Recommendations
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* [23]German Noun Genders
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Fun
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* [24]Most Minimal UK Address
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* [25]About
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* [26]Music
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* [27]Photos
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* [28]Books
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* [29]RSS
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Philosophy
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* [30]Resources: Philosophy of Work
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* [31]Alternatives to Wage Labour
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* [32]The Epistemic Implications of AI Assistants
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* [33]Our Schools Should Teach Communication
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* [34]Voting Regardless of Citizenship
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* [35]Effective Apologies
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Programming
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* [36]The Caring Programmer's Manifesto
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* [37]The Hare Programming Language
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* [38]Hare Regex Implementation
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* [39]Peony Game Engine
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* [40]Skeletal Animation
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* [41]clumsy computer
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* [42]Submodule GB01
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* [43]vegvisir
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* [44]pstr
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* [45]Dithering
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Languages
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* [46]Japanese Recommendations
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* [47]German Noun Genders
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Fun
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* [48]Most Minimal UK Address
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Resources on the Philosophy of Work
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04 August 2022
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Wage labour is when you get paid a salary by a company to do work,
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thereby renting out your time. It’s not a good system because it forces
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employees to be exploited by manager-owners. This exploitation can be
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financial, for example if you get paid less than you produce, but it
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can also be something more than that. One often ends up in a situation
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where one finds one’s work meaningless, because one cannot connect to,
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own and direct one’s work in a hierarchical managerial workplace.
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Additionally, because wage labour is by far the most widespread method
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of organising work, one might feel powerless to attempt to connect to
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their work without having someone else own and direct it.
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Worse, even when one works 8 hours per day, the remaining hours are
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often dedicated to recovering from work and restoring one’s energy so
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that one may be productive on the next workday. All of these things
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come together to form something called “alienation” — our work is
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important to us, and we should have a positive connection to it, but we
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end up having a deficient and corrupted connection to it, which is an
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injustice.
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Some might say that this is unavoidable, but this is not true. In fact,
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the very idea of this system being unavoidable is a result of a bad way
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of looking at things called “reification”, which means taking something
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that us humans have made up, such as our economic system, and saying
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that it is actually real and inevitably has power over us. This is not
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the case because it is us who structured society in this way, and we
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could have done it any other way.
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Indeed, we know that it is possible to be creative without being
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oppressed. Most people can contrast alienated wage labour (what some
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simply sweepingly call “work”) with playful creation, where someone is
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compelled by passion and interest to put a lot of effort into creating
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something. In fact, we know that, ironically, we are usually more
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productive in this passionate state, than when we are managed and
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disciplined into doing something we do not care about.
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One might object that this view is naïve because it is not possible to
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simply do what we’re passionate about — there are many jobs that must
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be done and that are simply not fun. But the fact of the matter is that
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a very large amount of today’s jobs are entirely pointless and
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unneccesary. Instead, they only exist to provide a reason to perpetuate
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the status quo of wage labour.
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Imagine someone doing a job we knew to be completely useless, and
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receiving a salary for it every month. How would we respond to the
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proposal of paying this person their salary, but allowing them to
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simply stop doing their work? Many would react negatively and say that
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this person would be getting paid for nothing. But is it not concerning
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that we would want someone to waste their life away doing something
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which is never useful to anyone, just so that we can feel that they
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have thereby somehow earned their right to exist?
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Gradual change is possible, and a big part of this change is cultural.
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This means first realising all the harmful things that gross inequality
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of income and power does, then changing our values to say that everyone
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deserves to direct their own life and earn a fair living. This does not
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necessarily mean that everyone actually will be able to do these
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things, but the first step is recognising the current state of affairs
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as unjustifiable.
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Here are some beginner-friendly books and articles on this topic that I
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have loved, and are both eloquent and fun to read. I have also included
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some quotes that I feel explain these concepts well.
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Introductory Essays and Books
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[49]“In Praise of Idleness” Bertrand Russell [50]“Bullshit Jobs” David
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Graeber [51]“The Tyranny of Merit” Michael J. Sandel [52]“The Abolition
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of Work” Bob Black
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The absolute best place to start is “In Praise of Idleness”, a short
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and very accessible essay by Russell that explains some of the most
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basic problems with our conception of work. “Bullshit Jobs” is a
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classic in which Graeber describes how many of the jobs we are
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currently doing are simply not useful to anyone. In “The Tyranny of
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Merit”, which I have found life-changing, Sandel describes how our
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conceptions of “merit” do not align with reality, and that our
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blindness to this affects our lives significantly. Lastly, “The
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Abolition of Work” is a classic and emotionally powerful essay by Bob
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Black in which he very clearly describes many of the problems with
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“work”, but this essay can also be too polemical and antagonising.
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More In-Depth Books
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[53]“Another Now” Yanis Varoufakis [54]“Talking to my Daughter About
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the Economy” Yanis Varoufakis
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People often ask me what a system that abolishes wage labour and
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capitalism would look like. In “Another Now”, former Greek finance
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minister Yanis Varoufakis tells a fictional story that describes what
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such a parallel world would look like, and he goes into significant
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economic detail. Similarly, “Talking to my Daughter About the Economy”
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is an easy to read and light-hearted description of today’s economy.
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Philosophical Background
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[55]“Alienation” Rahel Jaeggi [56]“Free Time” Theodor W. Adorno
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Perhaps you have read the more accessible material above, but would
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like to get more into the philosophical details. In “Alienation”, Rahel
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Jaeggi describes the history of the concept of alienation, and
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describes a modern and analytic way to look at it, which I find very
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useful. Her description really makes one wonder about the aspects of
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alienation that transcend the financial, such as its impact on our
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epistemic agency. Adorno’s “Free Time” is an amazingly insightful look
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at how work has profound effects on us not only during our time at the
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workplace, but also during our so-called “free time”, which the
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employer nonetheless deeply affects and controls.
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You can also read my somewhat amateurish essay, [57]“Alternatives to
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Wage Labour”.
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Explanatory quotes
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Here are some quotes that I feel explain the ideas I have referenced
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above quite well. I do not necessarily directly endorse all of these
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perspectives, but rather find it useful to illustrate how philosophers
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describe these issues.
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We should do away with the absolutely specious notion that everybody
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has to earn a living. It is a fact today that one in ten thousand of
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us can make a technological breakthrough capable of supporting all
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the rest. The youth of today are absolutely right in recognizing
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this nonsense of earning a living. We keep inventing jobs because of
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this false idea that everybody has to be employed at some kind of
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drudgery because, according to Malthusian Darwinian theory he must
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justify his right to exist. So we have inspectors of inspectors and
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people making instruments for inspectors to inspect inspectors. The
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true business of people should be to go back to school and think
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about whatever it was they were thinking about before somebody came
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along and told them they had to earn a living.
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— Buckminster Fuller
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The ‘positive’ sense of the word ‘liberty’ derives from the wish on
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the part of the individual to be his own master. I wish my life and
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decisions to depend on myself, not on external forces of whatever
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kind. I wish to be the instrument of my own, not of other men’s,
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acts of will. I wish to be a subject, not an object; to be moved by
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reasons, by conscious purposes, which are my own, not by causes
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which affect me, as it were, from outside. I wish to be somebody,
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not nobody; a doer—deciding, not being decided for, self-directed
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and not acted upon by external nature or by other men as if I were a
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thing, or an animal, or a slave incapable of playing a human role,
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that is, of conceiving goals and policies of my own and realizing
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them. (…) I wish, above all, to be conscious of myself as a
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thinking, willing, active being, bearing responsibility for my
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choices and able to explain them by references to my own ideas and
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purposes. I feel free to the degree that I believe this to be true,
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and enslaved to the degree that I am made to realize that it is not.
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— Isaiah Berlin
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The fact that the vast majority of the population accepts, and is
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made to accept, this society does not render it less irrational and
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less reprehensible.
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— Herbert Marcuse, “One-Dimensional Man”, p. xliv
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The things of everyday life [must be] lifted out of the realm of the
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self-evident. (…) That which is “natural” must assume the features
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of the extraordinary. Only in this manner can the laws of cause and
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effect reveal themselves.
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— Bertolt Brecht, “Schriften zum Theater” (Berlin and Frankfurt,
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Suhrkamp, 1957), p. 7, 9.
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The Story of the Mathematician
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This is a very short story used as an example by Rahel Jaeggi in
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“Alienation” which I find a stunningly good illustration of the
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problems I refer to.
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A young academic takes up his first position. At the same time he
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and his girlfriend decide to marry. That makes sense “because of the
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taxes.” A short time later his wife becomes pregnant. Since large
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apartments in the city are expensive and hard to find, they decide
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to move to a suburb. After all, life outside the city will be
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“better for the child.” The man, a gifted mathematician, who until
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then has led a slightly chaotic life, oscillating between too much
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night life and an obsessive immersion in work, is now confronted
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with a completely new situation. All of a sudden, and without him
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having really noticed it, his life is now, as it were, “on track.”
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One thing seems to follow ineluctably from another. And in a
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creeping, almost unnoticeable process his life acquires all the
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attributes of a completely normal suburban existence. Would he, who
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earlier ate fast food most of the time and relied on convenience
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stores for picking up milk and toilet paper as the need arose, ever
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have thought that he would one day drive every Saturday morning to
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the shopping mall to buy supplies for the week and fill the freezer?
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Could he ever have imagined that he would hurry home from work on
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Friday because the lawn needed to be mowed before the barbecue? At
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first he and his wife hardly notice that their conversations are
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increasingly limited to their child and the organization of
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household chores. Sometimes, however, he is overcome by a feeling of
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unreality. Something is wrong here. While many envy him for the
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beautiful suburban house he lives in, he is not really at home in
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this situation. The life he leads, which, as it seems to him, has so
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suddenly tightened around him—one could almost say “rearranged”
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him—seems, in a strange way, not to be his own life. Everything is
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as if it could not be any other way; everything happens with a
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certain inevitability. And in spite of this—or perhaps precisely
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because of it—it remains in a crucial respect alien to him. To what
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extent is this life “not really” his own? To what extent is he, in
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this life that he leads, alienated from himself?
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Each individual aspect of his life (…) has not really been decided
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on. Thus, his situation is in fact “out of control” in a certain
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sense, and (…) it is a situation for which no one can genuinely be
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held responsible. This does not merely mean that he has not acted,
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or has not availed himself of his possibilities for acting, but that
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he has not even understood his situation as one in which action is
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called for or possible; it does not merely mean that he has not
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decided something for himself, or has not led his life himself, but
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that he has been incapable of understanding or regarding it as
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something he can or must lead.
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— Rahel Jaeggi, “Alienation”
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[58]XXIIVV webring © 2010 Vlad-Stefan Harbuz. Article text and media is
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[59]CC-BY-SA 4.0 unless otherwise specified. All other rights reserved.
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References
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Visible links:
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1. https://vladh.net/about
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2. https://vladh.net/music
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3. https://vladh.net/photos
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4. https://vladh.net/books
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5. https://vladh.net/index.xml
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6. https://vladh.net/wage-labour-resources
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7. https://vladh.net/alternatives-to-wage-labour
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8. https://vladh.net/the-epistemic-implications-of-ai-assistants
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9. https://vladh.net/our-schools-should-teach-communication
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10. https://vladh.net/voting-regardless-of-citizenship
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11. https://vladh.net/apologies
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12. https://vladh.net/manifesto
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13. https://vladh.net/hare
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14. https://vladh.net/implementing-regular-expressions-in-hare
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15. https://vladh.net/peony
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16. https://vladh.net/game-engine-skeletal-animation
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17. https://vladh.net/clumsycomputer
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18. https://vladh.net/submodule
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19. https://vladh.net/vegvisir
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20. https://vladh.net/pstr
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21. https://vladh.net/dithering
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22. https://vladh.net/japanese-recommendations
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23. https://vladh.net/german-nouns
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24. https://vladh.net/most-minimal-uk-address
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25. https://vladh.net/about
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26. https://vladh.net/music
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27. https://vladh.net/photos
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28. https://vladh.net/books
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29. https://vladh.net/index.xml
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30. https://vladh.net/wage-labour-resources
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31. https://vladh.net/alternatives-to-wage-labour
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32. https://vladh.net/the-epistemic-implications-of-ai-assistants
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33. https://vladh.net/our-schools-should-teach-communication
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34. https://vladh.net/voting-regardless-of-citizenship
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35. https://vladh.net/apologies
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36. https://vladh.net/manifesto
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37. https://vladh.net/hare
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38. https://vladh.net/implementing-regular-expressions-in-hare
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39. https://vladh.net/peony
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40. https://vladh.net/game-engine-skeletal-animation
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41. https://vladh.net/clumsycomputer
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42. https://vladh.net/submodule
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43. https://vladh.net/vegvisir
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44. https://vladh.net/pstr
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45. https://vladh.net/dithering
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46. https://vladh.net/japanese-recommendations
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47. https://vladh.net/german-nouns
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48. https://vladh.net/most-minimal-uk-address
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49. https://harpers.org/archive/1932/10/in-praise-of-idleness/
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50. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36531574-bullshit-jobs
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51. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50364458-the-tyranny-of-merit
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52. https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/bob-black-the-abolition-of-work
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53. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49098225-another-now
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54. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36490332-talking-to-my-daughter-about-the-economy
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55. https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/19144936
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56. http://xenopraxis.net/readings/adorno_freetime.pdf
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57. https://vladh.net/alternatives-to-wage-labour
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58. https://webring.xxiivv.com/#vladh
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59. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
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Hidden links:
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61. https://vladh.net/
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