House of Paine

bill morris on work

 i post this classic fragment 
to get some feed back

    including my own
i am much troubled by it ...


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the glorious mr Morris 

 “ Let us grant,
 first
 that the race of man
 must either labour or perish
 Nature does not give us
 our livelihood gratis
 we must win it by toil
 of some sort 
and to some degree"

  --- right off where's technical progress 
      automation wqas around in the 18th century
      adams curse  
     if its the fall from  hunting and gathering 
      to  peasant farming
             whats its upside now with machines ?-----
      
                

" Let us see  then
 if she does not give us 
some compensation
 for this compulsion to labour
 since certainly in other matters
 she takes care to make
 the acts necessary 
to the continuance of life 
in the individual
 and the race 
not only endurable
 but even pleasurable.”

--- this is brilliant 
the joy in work
lost as paradise was lost ---


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and again 

 “ The hope of pleasure
 in the work itself
 how strange 
that hope must seem
 to  some of my readers
  to most of them"
 -- again the brilliance to see
the common perception of work
as only  adams curse (vide KM on this too) ----


" to all living things 
there is a pleasure 
in the exercise of their energies
  even beasts
 rejoice in being
 lithe and swift and strong"


 ------ the set up worthy of darwin---

" a man at work
 making something
 which he feels will exist
 because he is working at it
 and wills it
 is exercising the energies 
of his mind and soul 
as well as of his body
 Memory and imagination
 help him as he works
 Not only his own thoughts
 but the thoughts
 of the men of past ages 
guide his hands
 and, as a part of the human race
 he creates"

" If we work thus 
we shall be men
 and our days 
will be happy and eventful"

---- free labor ?---
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 "And all these middle men
 have  as a rule
 one aim in view 
not the production of utilities

 but the gaining of a position 

either for
themselves 
or their children 
a position 
in which they will not have to work at all
indeed 
 It is their ambition 
and the end 
of their whole lives to gain
 if not for themselves 
yet at least for their children
 the proud
position of being obvious burdens
                       on the community."
 --- this is again brilliant
   otium  v negotium
the leisure class
asthe oure  burden class
but the barren result
 of their gainful  tasks
whilst building their
  "means "
 is here confllated
 with the processof aquisiton
that in itself might be sinisterly joyous----



"As long as the work is repulsive
 it will still be 
a burden which must be taken up daily
 and even so
would mar our life
 even though the hours of labour 
were short. "

 --- first the acute observation 
that shortening hours 
will not remove 
the burben of repulsive work
but then there's the static notion 
of socially necessary 
        daily burdens
               what of robotz-------

"What we want to do 
is to add to
our wealth 
without diminishing our pleasure."

   ---how about a dash for fully 
   automated production
not redesigned humanized human  production---

" Nature will not be finally conquered
 till our work
becomes a part of the pleasure 
of our lives. "

"If we were to wake up 
some morning now, 
under our present system, 
and find it "easy to live,"
the present system would force us 
to set to work at once 
by  making  it hard to live 
without selling your time "

" we should call that
"developing our resources," 
or some such fine name."

" The multiplication of labour 
has become a
necessity for us, 
and as long as that goes on
 no ingenuity in the invention of machines
 will be of
any real use to us."

  
"Each new machine
 causes  a certain amount of misery 
among the workers
whose special industry 
it may disturb; 
so many of them 
will be reduced 
from skilled to unskilled
workmen,
 and then gradually matters 
will slip into their due grooves,
 and all will work apparently
smoothly again"


" and if it were not 
that all this 
is preparing revolution,
 things would be,
 for the greater part of men, 
just as they were
 before the new wonderful invention. "
------------------------------
"Now, for my part, 
I think the first use 
we ought to make of that wealth,
 of that freedom, 
should be to make all our labour,
 even the commonest and most necessary, 
pleasant to everybody;"


" the one course 
which will certainly make life
happy 
in the face of all accidents and troubles 
is to take a pleasurable interest 
in all the details
 of
life. "

 " let me remind you 
how entirely 
modern civilization
 forbids happiness

 with what sordid,
 and even terrible
details it surrounds 
the life of the poor
 

"  We must begin 
to build up 
the ornamental part of life 
- its pleasure, bodily and mental, scientific
and artistic, social and individual - 
on the basis of work
 undertaken willingly and cheerfully,
 with the consciousness of benefiting ourselves 
and our neighbours by it"

" Such absolutely necessary
work as we should have to do
 would in the first place 
take up but a small part of each day,
 and so far would not be burdensome;
 but it would be a task 
of daily recurrence, 
and therefore would
spoil our day's pleasure 
unless it were made 
at least endurable while it lasted."
, 
" all labour, 
even the commonest, 
must be made attractive." 
" labour, 
to be attractive,
 must be directed
towards some obviously useful end",

 .
 
"This element of obvious usefulness
 is all the more 
to be counted on in
sweetening tasks otherwise irksome"


" social morality,
 the responsibility of man
 towards the life of man,
 will, in the new order of things, 
take the place of theological morality,
 or the responsibility of man
 to some abstract idea."

 " the day's work will be short."

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