This doesn’t apply to all workers in the world, not by a long shot, as most do not have a choice at all, and most have much much worse working conditions as these. But to all those middle-to-working class people in the West, yes let’s all wake up to the absurdity of this system.
I like anarchofem’s commentary, but I want to dig a little further. Although the anti-industrial capitalism sentiment hits my sweet spot, the argument attempts to legitimate itself with a hint of ” science.” In reality, our genetic code has yet to tell us any truths about better labor practices, the definition of humanity, or to what extent we can compare ourselves to machines. All too often, liberal anti-capitalists (I know, its kind of an oxymoron) use ” science,” particularly popular fields such as genetics, to bolster their argument on socio-political ethics. The problem is that building an argument on natural laws is at its core an individualist liberal route based on the same knowledge often used to make pro-capitalist arguments. Instead, we should critique the legitimacy of arguments that utilize natural laws and vague scientific facts.
I couldn’t agree more. You’re absolutely right, this kind of “scientific fact=truth” argument is precisely the kind that would legitimize gender binarism, or, a hundred years ago, racism. I also disagree with the genetic argument. Epigenetics is an interesting area of science that seems to imply that genetic determination might be not that simple at all. However, it is difficult to dispute the fact that most working conditions under capitalism are harmful to health in general, and most definitely to mental health, not to mention alienation. This isn’t so much a “scientific” fact, but rather to be precise an empirical statistical observation. Thank you alexbreiding for bringing this to my attention!
