I think it will happen much faster. But I can "see" Harry shaking his head so I thought I would really go out in time.
arthur -----Original Message----- From: Ray Evans Harrell [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, September 09, 2003 9:44 AM To: Cordell, Arthur: ECOM; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Fw: [Futurework] The world of work 2 Bravo Arthur, But are we really that slow? REH ----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, September 09, 2003 9:43 AM Subject: RE: Fw: [Futurework] The world of work 2 > OK, let's imagine 100 years from now. Are we still "going to work"? > Commuting? Creating jobs? Establishing policies for growth? > > I think the entire production process will go the way of agriculture and > shrink to 3 or 4 percent of the workforce. I think the notion of play, of > sabbaticals, of self development will be very important. > > I think we will look back on some of our accepted policies in much the same > way as we look back on the use of children in mines, mills and weaving. > > Still shaking your head Harry? So go out 200 years in time. At some point > jobs and growth will cease to be a way of distributing income. At this > point some form of basic income will happen. > > Of course the education system will have to shift from "learning to make a > living" to "learning to cope with living". > > Stay tuned. > > Arthur > > -----Original Message----- > From: Harry Pollard [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Tuesday, September 09, 2003 3:00 AM > To: Karen Watters Cole; [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Cc: Selma Singer; RE Harrell; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; Cordell, > Arthur: ECOM > Subject: RE: Fw: [Futurework] The world of work 2 > > > Karen, > > This one has gone into my archives - as do so many of your posts. > > However, I don't think very much of his conclusions. This great mountain of > an economy rests on those who actually make things. However computerized we > get, someone has to produce food, clothing, and shelter. And most of these > jobs require hard work. > > There again, the society is run by the middle-class professionals who are > working longer, taking fewer holidays - getting well paid generally for not > seeing a lot of their families. > > It's been a utopian dream that everyone will have no more than (say) a 20 > hour work week, with the labor being attractive and meaningful, while the > pay is huge. > > This provided the impetus for the piece. > > But, it's a dream. The reality is very different. > > What a pity. > > Harry > ---------------------------------------------------------- > > Karen wrote: > > >Selma, this might be of interest. Forwarded to me. - KWC > > > >The Play Ethic @ > ><http://www.theplayethic.com/pages/172935/index.htm>http://www.theplayethic > .com/pages/172935/index.htm > >"Play will be to the 21st century what work was to the last 300 years of > >industrial society - our dominant way of knowing, doing and creating > >value." Pat Kane > > > >and from one of its pages, "living creatively in the new century" @ > ><http://www.theplayethic.com/pages/868006/index.htm>http://www.theplayethic > .com/pages/868006/index.htm > > > >Scotland on Sunday, 05Jan1997UK: WHEN ANGELS GUIDE THE HANDS OF IDLENESS. > >Has the time come to abandon the Protestant work ethic? As technology > >advances and the structure of work changes, Pat Kane suggests a different, > >more creative philosophy to suit the new era > > > >DOES the devil necessarily make work for idle hands? The most momentous > >changes in the structure of employment are upon us: it is time we looked > >anew at our oldest prejudices. With the information age transforming all > >social co-ordinates, we should think about a replacement for the work > >ethic - in a world where work, as we know it, is evaporating before our > >eyes. I bid for the play ethic. > >Some may react negatively: can play be ethical? To be sure, we have a long > >historical precedent for the ethics of 'work'. Employment became 'good for > >the soul' in the early 19th century. Britain's capitalist class faced a > >workforce growing debauched, unruly and radical. They had been dragged > >from rural self-subsistence into the punishing regimes of factory labour, > >and were coping none too well with the booms and slumps of early > capitalism. > >The 'Protestant work ethic', as defined by sociologist Max Weber, was > >intended to discipline the early proletariat - through spiritual, as well > >as monetary, means. Large churches spread throughout the industrial cities > >of Britain, expounding the virtues of honest, upright labour to their > >flock, via well-chosen Gospel precepts. "In the sweat of thy face thou > >shalt eat bread" (Genesis 3:19). "If any would not work, neither should he > >eat" (2 Thessalonians 3:10). > >This notion of the work ethic has an extraordinary tenacity, even as we > >progress through the Second Industrial Revolution. There is still no more > >basic formation of personal esteem than our job: and there is still no > >more basic shame than our unemployment. From Blair to Major, idle hands > >are still presumed to be jumping to the devil's work. What else motivates > >the cross-party admonitions against welfare 'dependency', and the move > >towards workfare schemes, other than a fear of what the unemployed will do > >with their enforced free-time: take drugs, procreate, slump before > >screens, occupy the streets, get involved in the black economy ...? > >The 'Protestant' aspect of the work ethic is still strong here, raising > >deep emotions of guilt and resentment. The employed are encouraged to > >regard their leisure, their play-time, as compensation for the punishments > >of work: thus the often frantic nature of their recreation, chasing one > >intensity after another, fuelling consumer society. Yet the idea of the > >unemployed having access to even a portion of this leisure, without paying > >its price in the ardours of work, threatens to reveal the absurdity of the > >lifestyle of the employed - they are working too hard, playing too hard, > >endlessly chasing their tails. > >The moral rectitude of the Blairite project augurs well for a revitalised > >work ethic - in the form of national duty, the main virtue binding > >together all parts of the social spectrum, from the newly-defined > >'job-seeker' to the 'stakeholding' company executive. > >The objection to this is simple: how can you sustain a work ethic, when > >work itself is deconstructing before our very eyes? The massive shifts > >towards short-term contracts, part-time work, self-employment and > >manufacturing-to-services are well enough documented. Their causes - new > >technology, global competition, individualism - are recognised and > >accepted by most of us. And it is a standby of current social thought that > >the relentless automation of labour - mental and manual - is laying in > >store an unemployment problem of massive proportions. > >Around 75% of the labour force in any industrial nation is doing little > >more than simple repetitive tasks, and is thus potentially automatable: > >less than 5% of companies round the world have begun to use new > >technologies fully in their workplace (an excerpt from Jeremy Rifkin's The > >End of Work). > >The forthcoming clash of party-political nationalisms in the UK is a mere > >distraction to this coming holocaust of employment - which will do away > >with humans, says the Nobel laureate economist Wassily Leontief, "in the > >same way that the role of horses in agricultural production was first > >diminished, and then eliminated, by the introduction of tractors". > >Devotion to the work ethic, in a time where work (as traditionally > >conceived) is disappearing, will only result in greater gloom and despair > >than necessary. To propose a 'play ethic' may seem like suggesting we > >fiddle while Rome burns; a degraded messing-about in the social ruins of > >cyber-capitalism. Yet if we can bring the same moral fervour to the values > >of openness, creativity and self-realisation as we have done to those of > >obedience, discipline and self-regulation, then we may yet make a triumph > >of what appears to be an impending civilisational disaster. > >Intellectually at least, the case can be made for play's virtues. > >Psychologist DW Winnicott cited play as the "creation of personality" - > >that exciting sharing of self and world that make new ideas possible. > >The Dutch historian Johan Huizinga has called us Homo Ludens: in that > >exhaustive book, he states that "pure play is one of the main bases of > >civilisation". And in the sciences of complexity, play is regarded as the > >central process that brings order to the chaos of natural creation - in > >the words of biologist Brian Goodwin, "our creativity is essentially > >similar to the creativity that is the stuff of evolution". > >Practically speaking, the play ethic can be applied most readily in the > >realm of education. Most of those who are joining further and higher > >education, as a means of lifting themselves away from obsolete or > >declining jobs, find the experience to be more than just a reskilling > >exercise. From the perspective of the work ethic, students have always > >been regarded as slightly suspect - and rightly so. The activity of > >reading books, being taught and socialising for two to four years always > >had far too much autonomy in it for the wage-enslaved. > >Even with the utilitarian strictures now placed on education, the most > >vocational business or marketing degree will make connections to areas of > >psychology, social theory, philosophy - knowledge that will often > >transform the student into someone with a radically self-directed > >mentality. This builds what the sociologist Anthony Giddens calls the > >"autotelic" self - someone who has an inner confidence based on > >self-respect, whose happiness is prior to their position in the > >marketplace or the organisation. > >It is precisely these balanced, autonomous selves - the bearers of a play > >ethic - that info-capitalism needs to thrive. Their principles of > >creativity, empathy and innovation were never more appropriate to the > >service-driven, decentralised organisations of our times. > >Over the next decade (and despite electoral posturings), it is more than > >likely that most European governments, faced with the implosion of work, > >will be forced to implement fundamental changes in their welfare system > >and the labour market. Much shorter working weeks, technology taxes, > >perhaps even a citizen's income, may be the only coherent responses to the > >upheavals of a hyper-productive capitalism. In this climate, work won't > >just be quantitatively a lesser part of people's lives, but qualitatively > >too. Will the fundamental idea of 'useful toil' - that effort required for > >society to function - begin to decay, in a haze of leisured hedonism? > >Yet the idea of a play ethic implies just that - an ethical stance towards > >play that moves away from the idea of leisure as purely individualistic > >and undemanding. A play ethic would be social, concerned with the > >pleasures of others as well as oneself; it would be effortful and > >demanding, setting itself performance targets and goals; it would make > >possible intense experiences, alone and with others. > >There will be a place for 'useful toil' - or a minimalist work ethic - in > >such a culture of creativity and play. If we can make the needed > >structural and attitudinal changes to cope with the end of work, angels > >will surely guide the hands of idleness. > >If not, then the devil of social division will have his claws on all our > >wrists. > > > >Source: UNITED KINGDOM > >SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY 5/1/97 P16 > > > **************************************************** > Harry Pollard > Henry George School of Social Science of Los Angeles > Box 655 Tujunga CA 91042 > Tel: (818) 352-4141 -- Fax: (818) 353-2242 > http://home.comcast.net/~haledward > **************************************************** > > _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://scribe.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
