48 Hours

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, USA

   Laurence Remila: Can one live without working?

   Raoul Vaneigem: We can only live without working. 

I think that sums it up nicely. I am fully aware that work is required, but is it possible we work too much, that we spend our days working to accumulate things that come to represent our lives? How many hours of our lives are invested in that new couch or that dinner at the new restaurant everyone is talking about? If asked, would we have wanted to give up 40 hours of our prime days to pay for the best of something when the suitable would have been enough? Add it all together and these things represent years of our lives that are gone forever. We still have that thing, but would we rather have spent the time doing something of our own choosing? Then the question goes to another level, are the mass of men capable of doing anything other than working and consuming? Are we capable of pursuing an original thought or is simple mimicry and watching others create the fate of 99% of us? We were trained, above all else, to be workers and consumers. It would seem leisure and creativity are only for the few? We will never know because there is always another meal to buy or another month of rent/mortgage to pay. Consumer capitalism is designed to have the mass of us do two things: work and consume. Even those with enough to do something else with their lives continue to work and consume buying one more house, one more yacht, one more wife/husband. It is the rare person that steps aside and says, "I'm done. I have everything I need and want to be free." Can there be freedom if the majority of us are held at this subsistence level never able to break away from the chains of the owners, cursed to just sort of make it. Of course that's how capitalism works. If everyone suddenly said, I think I have enough, the system would collapse.  

If workers realized they don't need to work 270 odd days a year to maintain an acceptable state of existence, they would rebel against the system. What if it only took 800 hours of paid work a year to have a decent life rather than the usual 2,000. What would each of us do with an additional 1,200 hours of time per year to do with as we wish? Could we all become artists designing our own lives. Would we spend our days helping others? Would we build communities where people know their neighbors? Would we live to enjoy our time? Or would we rather work more so we can have the latest iPhone or designer clothing. Given a choice, are we shallow consumers mesmerized by the latest shoddy goods or are we artists? Ultimately it comes down to the temperament of the individual. The mass of us would fall into some sort of chemical addiction and spend our days numbing our minds rather than exploring them. We see this every day in the lives of the born rich wasting their lives on perpetual shopping sprees. In the end everyone does what they are trained to do never making a choice but rather simply falling into the well worn ruts laid before them. They live the lives planned for them. 

Enough of that. Be free. 

gb