Work and play
Aug. 23rd, 2005 01:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
avevale_intelligencerThoughts arising from comments to one of ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
telynor’s posts, about the attitude of people whose lives revolve around their day jobs to those who pursue their creative dreams:
Everyone’s heard (or used) the phrase, of anyone who for whatever reason doesn’t have a regular job: “They think the world owes them a living.” This phrase (yes, I know it’s a sentence, and quite a severe one as well, with no time off for good behaviour) bothers the hell out of me. Partly this is because I am by nature idle and hate being made to feel guilty for not loving to work, partly because I have a knee-jerk adverse reaction to the hardline-Heinlein life-is-real-life-is-Algernon work-or-starve gung-ho worldview. Neither of these reactions is significant, both being flaws in my character that I probably won’t succeed in shifting at this late stage.
Partly, though, it bothers me because I dislike the idea of seeing life as a matter of debts and obligations. Clearly, to people who say this, it is a fact that, if the world doesn’t owe me a living, then obviously I must owe it one. I must pay back my life, in daily increments, to strangers who already get the benefit of the lives of many others. There is no element of choice. It’s what you do. Taking time out to be creative, especially unpaid, or even worse simply to play, is wasting something that doesn’t actually belong to me, that was mortgaged when I was born. And there’s no upper limit to the repayments. Even when I get too old to work for a living (however that will be defined by the time it happens) there will be this sense of indebtedness. I should be grateful for whatever microscopic amount of pension I get, because it’s really charity and I should be doing something in return.
This is a rich planet, as John Brunner said many years ago, and I live in one of the richest societies on it, and we are all bowed down by this culture of debt. But life is a gift. It’s not owed; it’s given. Talents are gifts. Strength and wit and even beauty are gifts, with no price tag. And I wonder how it would be if ours were a culture of giving, rather than owing: if we were brought up to believe that we are all immensely rich in ourselves, and that the way to make the best of our riches is to give them to the world, as the world gives to us. Give our time and our energy to help others, as we are given the means to live. Give of our talent to make the world even more beautiful, as others make it more beautiful for us. Give our lives, not because we owe them, but because we have them.
Stupidly idealistic, yes, probably. But do we begrudge our efforts and our time because we feel them being demanded of us, as of right, and that less than the equitable value is being tendered in return? Have we learned to look at the world as a marketplace, where everything has to be haggled over, bought cheap and sold dear, as if there were some scarcity? Can this view be changed, and would the world grind to a shuddering halt if it were?
telynor’s posts, about the attitude of people whose lives revolve around their day jobs to those who pursue their creative dreams:Everyone’s heard (or used) the phrase, of anyone who for whatever reason doesn’t have a regular job: “They think the world owes them a living.” This phrase (yes, I know it’s a sentence, and quite a severe one as well, with no time off for good behaviour) bothers the hell out of me. Partly this is because I am by nature idle and hate being made to feel guilty for not loving to work, partly because I have a knee-jerk adverse reaction to the hardline-Heinlein life-is-real-life-is-Algernon work-or-starve gung-ho worldview. Neither of these reactions is significant, both being flaws in my character that I probably won’t succeed in shifting at this late stage.
Partly, though, it bothers me because I dislike the idea of seeing life as a matter of debts and obligations. Clearly, to people who say this, it is a fact that, if the world doesn’t owe me a living, then obviously I must owe it one. I must pay back my life, in daily increments, to strangers who already get the benefit of the lives of many others. There is no element of choice. It’s what you do. Taking time out to be creative, especially unpaid, or even worse simply to play, is wasting something that doesn’t actually belong to me, that was mortgaged when I was born. And there’s no upper limit to the repayments. Even when I get too old to work for a living (however that will be defined by the time it happens) there will be this sense of indebtedness. I should be grateful for whatever microscopic amount of pension I get, because it’s really charity and I should be doing something in return.
This is a rich planet, as John Brunner said many years ago, and I live in one of the richest societies on it, and we are all bowed down by this culture of debt. But life is a gift. It’s not owed; it’s given. Talents are gifts. Strength and wit and even beauty are gifts, with no price tag. And I wonder how it would be if ours were a culture of giving, rather than owing: if we were brought up to believe that we are all immensely rich in ourselves, and that the way to make the best of our riches is to give them to the world, as the world gives to us. Give our time and our energy to help others, as we are given the means to live. Give of our talent to make the world even more beautiful, as others make it more beautiful for us. Give our lives, not because we owe them, but because we have them.
Stupidly idealistic, yes, probably. But do we begrudge our efforts and our time because we feel them being demanded of us, as of right, and that less than the equitable value is being tendered in return? Have we learned to look at the world as a marketplace, where everything has to be haggled over, bought cheap and sold dear, as if there were some scarcity? Can this view be changed, and would the world grind to a shuddering halt if it were?
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no subject
Date: 2005-08-24 02:38 am (UTC)We differ at one (IMO) critical point. Most paid work is the result of a voluntary contract; I agree to perform x, y, and z tasks. In exchange for these tasks, the employer agrees to provide a, b, and c (including but not limited to the usual -- money, paid vacation, and health or other benefits). I don't see this as an obligation; nobody forced me into the job I'm in, and I know perfectly well the consequences of leaving or failing to perform.
I have no problem with people taking time to create. What I do have a problem with is people who wish to create expecting people or organizations not of their family or friends or artistic patrons or other willing sources (government/welfare not included, mostly; it has legitimate reason to exist, regardless of the frequent fraud perpetrated on the system) to provide them the necessities of life. Largely, this is because I am aware of what it takes to create those necessities; housing and food and clean water are NOT the result of gifts by builders or farmers or those who process or transport the goods.
If they were, I'd be right in line to accept, smiling and saying "thank you" most sincerely.
On the gripping hand, I love seeing people in situations where their creativity isn't forced or twisted by economic factors. That's as win-win as it gets.
A note on my friend: she's the sort who really does believe that she can and should have what she wishes just by expressing a wish for it. Lovely idea, but (cynic as I am), I fear it's not realistic past about third grade. That she did this to her friends (who among us were a large fraction of her fiscal support for many years, not wishing to see her living on the streets) saw me, at least, move from an initial feeling of glad giving, to feeling coerced and resentful. (And I'd do it again, to keep a friend off the streets or out of shelters.)
If you're objecting to capitalism as primary economy, you're right: it has lots of flaws. On the other hand, I'm cynical enough about human nature that while I'd love to see a gift economy, I think it would be suborned to the greedy and powerful as soon as it was created. (Just like capitalism, for that matter.)