The
sacrosanct eight-hour day might seem untouchable to adherents of the present
scenario, but a four-hour day in most industries would see a similar amount of
work undertaken and completed with hitherto unseen efficiencies.
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| The "responsible men" gather to plan how they can ensure the 'many' work harder and longer to boost the bank balances of the few. |
Those who
only see the welfare of man linked inextricably to the economic paradigm and
therefore have no understanding of the richness of human contemplation and the
fruitfulness of humanism would weep at the idea of people doing what they love
rather than having their shoulder to the wheel.
An
eight-hour day is a fantasy for many and a move to halve that would need a
cultural change of tsunami-like proportions, which undoubtedly would be
accompanied by threats from the “responsible men” about the inevitable collapse
of society.
Contemporary
work injects discipline into our lives, bringing with it a certain contentment
arising from that understood regime and so to live with what would effectively
be a half-day holiday every day, people would need to re-think their affairs
enabling the fortification of personal resilience and survival understandings
that future scarcity will make imperative.
Naturally,
a switch to a four-hour day would bring complexities, but from those subsequent
intricacies would emerge people who were psychologically more intact, happier,
better workers and, importantly, vastly improved communitarians.
Suggestions
of a four-hour work day will bring, no doubt, a chorus of comments ranging from
“stupid” to “won’t work” from those unable to see the finer attributes of life and
whose futuristic vision is limited to what they can see through the prism of
growth and its attendant consumerism.
A four-hour
work day will naturally slow our exploitation of earth’s finite resources,
first by reducing our manufacturing throughput and so resultant output and
secondly by an overall reduction of our monetary wealth and, one would hope, a
decline in our apparently inexhaustible desire to accumulate.
The
seismic-like cultural change of a four-hour day would ricochet through the
whole of society and with such a short working day it would be advisable to
live where you work, or at least within easy walking or cycling distance,
bringing an urgent reality to the idea of a five minute life – that sees most
everything critical to day-to-day doings being just five minutes away.
The idea
that is “work” will be re-shaped, restructured and re-thought with many working
either at home, or from home, and travelling, maybe weekly, to a central place.
Work is
essential to our mental and emotional health just as is the “balance” we are
always encouraged to bring to our lives about many things.
Should we
have the capacity to understand how our egos ignite to underpin the consumerism
that drives the capitalistic ethos, then maybe we can find a true balance in our
lives between work and living.
