I've come to think there's an inescapable dark side to labor's being a source of one's identity.
I'm a Xennial, having grown up watching, reading, and listening to media that radiated subtext such as "Find a job that will make you who you are," "You can change the world through your job," "If you love your job, you'll never work a day in your life," "Your job can unleash your creativity."
I wish someone would've grabbed me by my collar and said, "Look, no matter what job you get, it will be fundamentally formed by and subject to market incentives, the profit motive, financialization, rent-seeking, etc. Not only will your creativity be ordered toward commercialization and commodification, and not only will any identity you make of yourself in your job be predicated upon these things. More than these, encouraging identification with your job or your employing corporation is a pretext for denying you a living wage and reasonable protections. It's okay to work a job you don't find all that fulfilling. Too much of the important stuff, the uncommodifiable stuff, happens outside the bounds of market logic."
After years of adjuncting, out of the sheer love of philosophy and teaching philosophy to berry farmers, future truck drivers, and retired cops, this little lesson certainly speaks to me now. I don't know if I would have taken this advice back when — I love philosophy too much. But it would have been good to know.
If there’s one piece of advice I’d give to a young person wondering what to study, I’d tell them this: stop worrying about what you’ll do for work and start asking what you want your life to be like. There’s fulfillment to be had in any sort of work, even if it’s not “fun” or “purposeful” in the traditional sense.
The ability to be in the present takes so much effort in our chaotic environment. Resisting the distractions to participate fully in tasks and activities is hard- takes discipline.
I've come to think there's an inescapable dark side to labor's being a source of one's identity.
I'm a Xennial, having grown up watching, reading, and listening to media that radiated subtext such as "Find a job that will make you who you are," "You can change the world through your job," "If you love your job, you'll never work a day in your life," "Your job can unleash your creativity."
I wish someone would've grabbed me by my collar and said, "Look, no matter what job you get, it will be fundamentally formed by and subject to market incentives, the profit motive, financialization, rent-seeking, etc. Not only will your creativity be ordered toward commercialization and commodification, and not only will any identity you make of yourself in your job be predicated upon these things. More than these, encouraging identification with your job or your employing corporation is a pretext for denying you a living wage and reasonable protections. It's okay to work a job you don't find all that fulfilling. Too much of the important stuff, the uncommodifiable stuff, happens outside the bounds of market logic."
After years of adjuncting, out of the sheer love of philosophy and teaching philosophy to berry farmers, future truck drivers, and retired cops, this little lesson certainly speaks to me now. I don't know if I would have taken this advice back when — I love philosophy too much. But it would have been good to know.
I agree with you on that marketing campaign. I wonder what it was meant to accomplish.
If there’s one piece of advice I’d give to a young person wondering what to study, I’d tell them this: stop worrying about what you’ll do for work and start asking what you want your life to be like. There’s fulfillment to be had in any sort of work, even if it’s not “fun” or “purposeful” in the traditional sense.
The ability to be in the present takes so much effort in our chaotic environment. Resisting the distractions to participate fully in tasks and activities is hard- takes discipline.