Idea goes up in smoke, leader announced by smoke

The young boy fantasized about having his own club, somewhere he could gather with like-minded souls, talk about things he now knows are social justice, equality, fairness, peace and altruism, but the idea vanished like smoke.



Charles Mackay
discusses madness
and delusions. 

Even then, in his naïve and youthful way, he could see there was no place for such an alliance as the world, it seemed, was driven by division and littered by other clubs that proffered similar values, but rarely, if ever, practiced them.

The club, he imagined, would have its own quarters remote from the influence of what he saw was a troubled and divided society, and its supporters would be clearly recognizable because of a distinct garment they wore.

Its totem, his youthful mind had decided, would be tangible, something he could physically experience; something palpable from the existing world and not an imaginary thing whose force rested upon faith that defied reason and drew its strength from illusion.

His idea dissolved as maturity advanced and in listening with intent to the “responsible men”, he became, throughout his teenage years embedded in the status quo to march in lockstep with the very people whom he instinctively suspected, but who, at the time, appeared to have a clear view of the future.

As it turns out, no one, not even the responsible men, could see or imagine what was going to happen and so their efforts combined with the peculiar and eccentric behaviour of the bizarre “clubs” that proliferated like weeds, did little but distort life.

Strangely, one of those, which has more than 1.2 billion club members from all corners of the earth, meets in a club-house remote from society, wears distinctive and in today’s world inappropriate clothing, conveys its message through chants, sustains itself though addiction to a litany of myths, recently announced the arrival of a new leader by pumping white smoke from the club-house chimney.

The young boy understood the importance of his idea, but the fearing people would laugh at his immature utopianism, abandoned his dream only to be seduced by the magic promised by the responsible men.

Youth, they say, is wasted on the young, but once imbedded the ideals remain and although mislaid for a time and confused by modern life, those foundational values of justice, equality, fairness, peace and altruism have recovered.

The white smoke from the club-house chimney might have signalled a new leader, but it was also a timely reminder that the ideals of youth; ideals about tangible public goods, have more value than is to be realized through adherence to a myth.

Nineteenth century author, Charles Mackay, wrote about Extraordinary Delusions and the Madness of Crowds and watching that rising smoke confirmed, for me, the Scotsman’s views.

Touching the 'untouchable' will secure our future

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.

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.

Addicted to the pleasurable rock of life

Work has always been, and still is, the rock to which my life is anchored, as is that of many others.

Bruce Springsteen

That, however, is a habit I don’t want to break as it pointedly enriches who and what I am. It makes me, in my view, a better person.

Naturally it is easy to be philosophically flippant about the pleasure work brings when not locked into seemingly endless and equally pointless and heartless sweat inducing toil, reminding me of the words from the Bruce Springsteen song “Factory”:

“End of the day, factory whistle cries,
Men walk through these gates with death in their eyes.
And you just better believe, boy,
somebody's gonna’ get hurt tonight,
It's the working, the working, just the working life”.

Work, for me, however is not about that sort of drudgery (of course some jobs  have had that flavour), rather it has largely been an ongoing joy through which the human interaction brightens my being, makes me smile and brings satisfaction to every day.

Interestingly though, our addiction to contemporary understandings of work, sees us devote a hefty, and almost irrational portion of our lives to maintaining a structure that ultimately enriches only a few, while the many toiling endlessly, get little.

The “responsible men” who, by what they make appear default, but which is really intent, and call the shots in society repeatedly bleat about the need of the “many” to work harder and longer, for less, to ensure, they argue, the integrity of an economic system that ultimately serves only them.

The disparity between rewards to the worker and ever bulging bank balances of the few is what ignited the unrest that become known as “the occupy movement”.

The “occupiers” have my support and sympathy as I can sense the injustices they live with and the subsequent unfairness that assaults them every day as a system deemed to be as it should be favours only a few.

However, as understandable as their cause is, it seems somewhat ill-directed in that it seeks equity, or at least an increased sense of fairness, in a system that is in itself fundamentally flawed.

The literal meaning of work has been so distorted by capitalistic tub-thumpers that it equates more now with drudgery than a vocation or a soul-enriching contribution to the broader betterment of the human experiment.

Modern times have seen most people enslaved to an economic paradigm from which we need to urgently disengage, both individually and as a society.

Economics is invariably politics in disguise and is structured with the intent of the few to profit, control and provide substantial individual short-term comfort ignoring, to the long-term peril of all, the ecological significance of our finite world.

•Next: Considering the four-hour day.