Hard Work

From:

http://kunstler.com/blog/2013/02/scale-implosion.html

rhino says:

"The next time that you go to the local emergency room and you get examined with an imaging machine think about how the machine got there. Do you have any idea? No? Did you build it? No?

What about that sled dog with a stethoscope, you know, the degreed, money grubbing sellout looking at your vitals. Did you ever wonder how he or she got there? Did you build the medical school they went to? No?

Yeah baby, you post your drivel using the internet. Did you build the internet? No?

Do you know how all this shit comes about? Let me enlighten you. It's because guys like me MAKE it happen. Yeah "Carol", surprise, surprise, these things don't just materialize out of thin air, not food, not MRI machines, not medical schools, not the internet. You know, college and university grads that you disdain, slave away year after year, designing and building and administering and delivering. Guys that have skill and knowledge, that get paid for what they do. Yeah Carol, we WORK and get PAID, concepts that maybe you have little exposure to. Guys that you deride as sled dogs, that create and maintain that very system that YOU take for granted every witless waking hour of your life, that system that YOU take from, that system that benefits YOU, that keeps YOUR sorry ass alive and fed and medicated. "


Hard Work...

Ok, rhino, tell us about how hard you worked: how many hours a day were you at the office ? how many meetings a day or week ? were they necessary, interesting, did they produce something ? how long does it take to be trained in typing a keyboard in a modern office ? exactly what skill sets, be precise please, are necessary to "work" and "be paid" and "be responsibile" ? exactly what do you mean by responsible ? please be precise, I am interested, I believe you can let us all in on something we don't know. Also, how many times did the boss boss you around ? did you ever feel like a little slave, like being under the thumb of someone ? did your ideas or evaluations contrast often with those of the boss or company ? did you just keep it inside or could you argue against them ? how many raises did you get and such.

Really, I would really like to see all of these Hard Work myth people at their work to see exactly what is so hard about it other than being forced to do things you don't like, and often things that are useless and just a show of power for the boss, just an appearance of work and such.

Put it this way: take a young graduate, put him in an office for 8 hours a day, now how long will it take to train him in any possible endeavor or task of moderate complexity most corporations ask for, how long can it take to get a number of procedures and manipulations inside his thick skull ? now consider, 8 hours a day is really a lot of time, if the guy isn't stupid, he should eventually pick it up after a month, or 3 months, or what the heck 6 months (yeah, I know, companies like to create constant emergencies, like to confuse you all the time, impossible schedules, al lot of insanity to make you work hard just because and such, but excluding this for the moment). Ok, now what ? now he just mostly repeats the routine, with some variations, but it is a routine, so it really is no longer hard work, get it ? After all, he is just using his logic, always the same crap day in and day out, logic, procedures, the same old over and over again, a drone and such. What makes it interesting is the fights (or emergencies, or impossible schedules, or constant change of plans and projects and such), the contrasts, the opposing will powers fighting against you or others, the wars, the office politics and so forth, and maybe this is what you really mean by hard work, trying to convince the boss or client that he should do this or that, the hard work consists in trying to manipulate another person's judgements or will power and such, and that indeed is hard work, more like impossible work since the other will power and judgment can do anything it wants no matter how hard you try and such. But of course, the accumulation of your effort is serialized, added up and put into a box of how hard you worked, your achievement is your effort, but most of that effort was useless anyways.

Of course, I am not taking about Brain Surgery or Integrated Circuit Designs, or Sending Rockets to Mars and such, obviously, there are hundreds of complex tasks, of complex engineering and technical tasks that really need years of training and such, but your average work force is not doing those things, so exclude those superstars, which I already mentioned (maybe 5 million workers worldwide out of a poulation of 800 million workers ?), and by the way, those superstars will rarely if ever brag about Hard Work or how many hours you have to be in the office for the boss to see you and such, since the tasks at hand obviously need so much attention and dedication, it would be a joke to speak about hard work and such.

But the entire bragging thing of Hard Work is simply to state, "I Deserver More Than You" (since I suffered more than you, pain accumulated and solidifies into all of my "Hard Work", hence you are not me, I can kick your ass and be your boss, and condemn you and judge you as badly as I want, and punish you and inflict pain upon you as much as I want, god gave me permission, so no more free handouts to no one, no free money to the lazy unemployed and such), therefore, I am justified in hating you, or taking anything away from you, it is a justification to let it all out and hate freely on others, to condemn others, now you are finally free and justified to crush anyone else who didn't work as hard as you did (the right wing mentality finally free to hate on others), a kind of moral justification for inequality, a kind of feeling smug and accommplished by your own standards, your own judgments and such. Acutally this is very easy to do, just openly say you are better than anyone else, end of story, no need to justify it with bragging about hard work nobody cares about and such.

There is this kind of paranoia, this kind of fear that people will always be lazy, idle, and such, so the mantra of Hard Work must be constantly grinded in their minds, they must constantly be warned that they must work hard, that they must deliver, that there is no free lunch (as if people will always misbehave, are all lazy craps: in all truth it is much harder to not work and be idle and do nothing all day long than to do something, people will naturally always want to work, even work hard to occupy time, to have tasks and such, this paranoia is no longer justified, belongs to an era where people had to be treated as slaves and such, or maybe those always chanting about hard work feel guilty of all of the real hard work they never did, like the Indians building skyscrapers in Dubai for 200 dollars month and such, real hard physical work paid crap for 12 hours a day and such) : the funny thing is, this mantra today is not only false but counter productive in that a Technological Economy needs more Hard Work like a hole in the head, it needs idle more than anything else, it needs free time for consumption, it needs lazy people who can invent all kinds of fun and games as most modern production is now all about fun and games, from Apple's IPHONE to all the financial gimmicks and magic in banks creating debts and loans and derivates and subprime loans and such.

Now rhino boy, lets see how hard you are willing to work, lets see if you actually reply to my questions precisely, lets see if you can do this task, just reply honestly, without ad hominen attacks, just reply and be honest and let us all in on your past life of hard work. We may learn a thing or two who knows ?

APE HEAD