The Abolition of Work - by Bob Black

[Doreen Peri]

http://www.primitivism.com/abolition.htm

I've been stuck on this primitivism site today!

How do I get in touch with Bob Black?

I want to abolish work, too!

I'd never heard of primitivism until today.

I love the articles on this site.

This one is funny but not. It's really a long article, though.

That's a big problem I have with the net.. reading long articles on the screen. I should print more stuff out and take it to the couch.

Anyway, what does this have to do with the Anti-Academy?

What does it have to do with the philosophy of art and aesthetics?

I think it fits here.

What do YOU think?

Let's abolish work, shall we?

e-dog? where ARE ya?

[e_dog]

most of this is true but so radical that most people won't take it seriously.

a great passage:

I don't suggest that most work is salvageable in this way. But then most work isn't worth trying to save. Only a small and diminishing fraction of work serves any useful purpose independent of the defense and reproduction of the work-system and its political and legal appendages. Twenty years ago, Paul and Percival Goodman estimated that just five percent of the work then being done -- presumably the figure, if accurate, is lower now -- would satisfy our minimal needs for food, clothing, and shelter. Theirs was only an educated guess but the main point is quite clear: directly or indirectly, most work serves the unproductive purposes of commerce or social control. Right off the bat we can liberate tens of millions of salesmen, soldiers, managers, cops, stockbrokers, clergymen, bankers, lawyers, teachers, landlords, security guards, ad-men and everyone who works for them. There is a snowball effect since every time you idle some bigshot you liberate his flunkeys and underlings also. Thus the economy *implodes*.

for another take on Foucault, a quick read:

http://www.n5m.org/n5m2/media/texts/deleuze.htm

[e_dog]

It's a sobering thought that the grecian urns we write odes about and showcase in museums were used in their own time to store olive oil. I doubt our everyday artifacts will fare as well in the future, if there is one. The point is that there's no such thing as progress in the world of work; if anything it's just the opposite.

another great quote.

doreen, do you knw anything about trhe authot Bob Black or when this was written? must be the 1980s at least or maybe recenter.

[recenter = more recent

neologism alert!]


thanks.

[tinkerjack]

I got no time to read it now, but
but
from Anthropology 401 UofMD circa 1971 it was known that certain endigenous people had to work about 16 hours a week to make their ends meet, shelter, food, etc. The rest of the time they busted their ass carving totem poles, fishing, creating jewelery and cosmetics, weaving stuff,

They had a hard life until Christian Missionaries brough them the good news and digital watches.

[Doreen Peri]

No, e-dog, I don't know anything about him other than I sent the link to my son and his response was, "Bob Black? Geez, Mom, he's a racist! A bigot!" Now, I don't know whether he's referring to this same Bob Black or not but he did say he hit the link and I'm pretty sure this is contemporary writing.

I just want to abolish work and laughed aloud when I read some of it.

So, if indeed he is the racist bigot my son referred to, apologies. I don't want to promote any writing by anybody with those types of beliefs and if you know of any good ways to abolish work, let me know, ok?

[Doreen Peri]

Just did a search ... Bob Black looks contemporary to me...
Here's a link

http://www.inspiracy.com/black/

[tinkerjack]

Sounds like nice work if you can get it. I like it. But how many of the five billion people on this planet really want freedom.



I don't know dor, just clicked around a little found some interesting speculations and musings about cultrual anthro, nothing lookes racist to me so far.

I like the way firesign said it, "increased spending opportunites mean harder work for everyone."

[microbe]

In the Big Rock Candy Mountain "they hanged the jerk who invented work". My kind of place.

[tinkerjack]

O’Hare reads him a few facts about the world which indicate that the world’s population gains 191,000 people each day. Vonnegut speculates that all those people will probably want dignity.

http://www.novelguide.com/Slaughterhous ... ter10.html

And they will want jobs too.