« "And, lo, there was a basso-profundo 'har-de-har-har' in heaven:" | Main | "If you are going 80 miles per house how long does it take to go 80 miles?" »
September 1, 2014
May Day in Europe and Labour Day in America do not celebrate work,
as a spiritual good when properly directed,but the organization of workers into a political force. We have the unions which replaced the ancient guilds, in which the member is only incidentally a labourer, and need have achieved no craft skill at all. His real identity is that of an anonymous and dependent cypher, serving the interests of men with power, who serve his interest by getting him more paper money, through “collective bargaining”: a legalized process of threats and extortion. The modern worker is a faceless man, or interchangeably a faceless woman, employed in office or factory, including our factory farms. He is part of the machinery. He must be “efficient” in machine terms, or like any other defective part he will be replaced.Labour Day : Essays in Idleness
Posted by gerardvanderleun at September 1, 2014 9:40 PM. This is an entry on the sideblog of American Digest: Check it out.
Your Say
The modern union worker is employed mostly by restaurants, hotels and government. Precious few in offices, factories or farms.
Posted by: BillH ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://americandigest.org/sidelines/nav-commenters.gif)
at September 2, 2014 7:21 AM
The movie "Metropolis" comes to mind. Mindless workers in anonymous factories. I have worked in foundries that resemble the scenes in this link. I have lived in large urban areas and that is mind-numbing in itself.
Kraftwerk does a good job putting music to it.
Posted by: chasmatic at September 6, 2014 10:31 PM