On "Theoretical Picture of a Free Society" (1934). What's the ideal living situation for us all, given the peculiarities of human nature? Nine years before Weil laid out her list of human needs, as covered in our last episode, she wrote a work that she hoped to be her magnum opus, Reflections Concerning the Causes of Liberty and Social Oppression. This included the Continue Reading …
Ep. 251: Simone Weil’s Ideal Society (Citizen Edition)
On "Theoretical Picture of a Free Society" (1934). What's the ideal living situation for us all, given the peculiarities of human nature? Nine years before Weil laid out her list of human needs, as covered in our last episode, she wrote a work that she hoped to be her magnum opus, Reflections Concerning the Causes of Liberty and Social Oppression. This included the Continue Reading …
Is “Do What You Love” Elitist?
Thanks to JSully for pointing me--in the context of our discussions here of New Work--in the direction of the recent Slate article, "In the Name of Love," by Miya Tokumitsu. Tokumitsu here describes the Steve-Jobsian commandment to "do what you love" as elitism, in that only the elite can afford such a luxury, and valuing only work done through love devalues the work Continue Reading …
Episode 83 Follow-Up: Q&A with Frithjof Bergmann
In light of our ep. 83, many listeners had questions on Frithjof's social/political/economic proposals for creating a post-job, pro-meaningful-work world. Mark Linsenmayer here pitches a number of these questions (culled from our blog and Facebook group) to Frithjof. What would a future New Work world look like? How do first-world folks fit into the project? How can I make Continue Reading …
Episode 83 Follow-Up: Q&A with Frithjof Bergmann
In light of our ep. 83, many listeners had questions on Frithjof's social/political/economic proposals for creating a post-job, pro-meaningful-work world. Mark Linsenmayer here pitches a number of these questions (culled from our blog and Facebook group) to Frithjof. What would a future New Work world look like? How do first-world folks fit into the project? How can I make Continue Reading …
Episode 83: New Work with Guest Frithjof Bergmann
Talking with Frithjof Bergmann, Prof. Emeritus from U. of Michigan, Ann Arbor about his book New Work, New Culture (2004, with new English translation release 2019). Frithjof is a world-renowned ex-Hegel/Nietzsche scholar who has worked since the early 80s on projects to realize the goal of "New Work," which is an alternative to the current, dysfunctional job system. New Continue Reading …
Episode 83: New Work with Guest Frithjof Bergmann
Talking with Frithjof Bergmann, Prof. Emeritus from U. of Michigan, Ann Arbor about his book New Work, New Culture (2004, English release coming soon). Frithjof is a world-renowned ex-Hegel/Nietzsche scholar who has worked since the early 80s on projects to realize the goal of "New Work," which is an alternative to the current, dysfunctional job system. New Work enables Continue Reading …
Robert Skidelsky on Work
Robert Skidelsky in How Much is Enough?: Money and the Good Life (2012) uses a 1930 essay from John Maynard Keynes (which you can read here) as a jumping-off point to argue, like Bergmann, that productivity gains enabled by past technological advances make it totally reasonable that we now should be working fewer hours than we are. However, Skidelsky's range of suggested Continue Reading …
Topic for #83: Frithjof Bergmann on the Job System
Listen to Mark's introduction to this topic via our Precognition mini-episode. On Saturday, 9/21, we're scheduled to interview Frithjof Bergmann, Professor Emeritus from the University of Michigan, about his book New Work, New Culture (published in German in 2004 and due for English-language release this year). I've written on this topic several times on this blog already, Continue Reading …
Recent Stories About Technology and Jobs: The Atlantic, PBS, and HuffPost
Continuing with my ongoing look at the "end of work," here's a short video from Derek Thompson at The Atlantic (Thanks to Ethan Gach for pointing this out to us): Watch at TheAtlantic.com. Continue Reading …
Jeremy Rifkin’s Policy Suggestions for the End of Work
I've continued to get jazzed about this "work" topic such that it looks like we'll be covering some selection of readings in this area for episode #83. My question about this on the Facebook group has gotten a lot of responses, and I'm starting to get clearer on the spectrum of questions and positions here. Here's some information on one of the sources I had in my possession Continue Reading …
Bertrand Russell’s “In Praise of Idleness” and Gary Gutting’s Modern Response
One of the resources raised in our Not School Bergmann discussion was Bertrand Russell's 1932 article "In Praise of Idleness," which you can read here. Here's his snarky definition of work: Work is of two kinds: first, altering the position of matter at or near the earth's surface relatively to other such matter; second, telling other people to do so. The first kind is Continue Reading …
Listen to the Not School Discussion on F. Bergmann’s “New Work”
July is over, and with it another month of Not School. Join up for some August action, which looks to include some Kant, Jung, David Foster Wallace, Lyotard, the philosophy of computer programming, maybe some more Marx, and more if you get in there now and propose something you'd prefer! My main activity this month was a group on the recent (well, 2003) work of a former prof Continue Reading …
Frithjof Bergmann on the Post-Work Culture for Not School
Might as well get this crush of Not School-related posts up in one wash so we can get on to other things... In our Marx episode we talked at the end about what happens after technology makes all of our jobs obsolete. I purposefully cut that line of discussion short because we're planning a whole episode on it, which will involve either reading works by or (if I can make it Continue Reading …
Iván Szelényi Lectures on Marx & Alienation
I referred in the episode to a number of lectures on Marx that helped me to put the German Ideology into perspective with Marx's other texts and filled me in on few of the Young Hegelians that he criticized. These were from Yale's Foundations of Modern Social Theory course by Iván Szelényi. (Get them from iTunes U.) Lectures 9-13 are all on Marx, and the series starts off with Continue Reading …