1. Can We Survive Career? In the 1950s, children were heroes if they secured 50% marks in their high school and secondary exams. In the ’80s, they were well set for life if they secured 80%. Today, securing even 100% can be meaningless. There is no mistaking the signs: the number of children committing suicide in India is growing at a rate of 30% every year. What explains this collective madness if not the twin sceptre of increasing knowledge-load and time-poverty? They are, in fact, two sides of the same coin. If not the fear of fall in the social and economic hierarchy and remaining unemployed: what else is the driving force behind the economy ? The fear of downward fall and being left behind expresses itself as upward mobility. Has not the growing pressure to outcompete other job-seekers in the job-market, accumulating over time, has turned generations of parents and teachers into natural enemies of the younger generation? 2. Can We Survive Work? In the 1950s, one male member with an 8-to-10-hour day job was somehow able to provide for a family of four or five children and extended family members. In 2012, both spouses work 12 hours, which equals a combined 22 to 24 hours each day. Add to that the share contributed by ageing but ‘economically active’ parents: 3-4 working hours, wherever possible. In total, our shrunken domestic unit spends 28 to 34 hours working every day. We slog three to four times more with incredibly higher productivity at the workplace today. Still, the ruling ideology never tires of telling us how much more hard-working and motivated we should be. The old hierarchy has given way to a new hierarchy. What else but our existence as workers and wage-workers explains our misery? The more we work, the more it turns against us and robs us of our humanity in our relationships — with our family, community, society and with ourselves. Who is the real thief of time? Our friends, relatives and community or The Workplace ? 3. Can We Survive Civilization? What the elites called civilization was always work for (in the true sense: against) us. After all, what did civilization do to the planet, to nature, to people? What was it if not a destruction machine wreaking havoc on the nature? Was it not just a labour camp for the majority of the human populations? Civilization and Work atomize and alienate everyone and everything from each other: humans from animals, animals from humans, humans from wilderness, wilderness from humans, individuals from community, community from individuals, individuals from individuals, mind from body, body from mind, and finally, one part of the self from another part of the self. And turn each of these against the other. If we want to become normal with ourselves, with other members of our species, and share the earth with its other inhabitants together : the abolition of our existence as workers and wage-workers is a precondition. This is the central question that should be raised and discussed together. We want our relationships with nature, human beings and other living beings at the centre of our life. Not career and work. We want to live our life, not just spend it !
Posted on: Sat, 01 Nov 2014 13:03:02 +0000
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