“The claim that capitalism has delivered us from excessive toil can be sustained only if we take as our point of comparison eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Europe and America — a period that witnessed what were probably the longest and most arduous work schedules in the history of mankind.” Juliet Schor
“In the early 17th century, a man who returned to his place of work after dinner was to be pitied, either the after-dinner man was overly devoted to labor, or else he had too much of it. Today, who doesn’t open the laptop of an evening — instead of spending time with family and friends, or reading, meditating, playing the ukulele — in order to answer work emails for a while, or put final touches on a PowerPoint report? We are all after-dinner men and women, now.” The Wage Slave's Glossary
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| Pregnant Neck Shenanegan-Esque Rapscalianismz!! LP (Touche Guffaw Rekidz, 1990) |
Pregnant Neck – No Time For Breakfast
More info here.
“Perpetual devotion to what a man calls his business, is only to be sustained by perpetual neglect of many other things. And it is not by any means certain that a man's business is the most important thing he has to do.” Robert Louis Stevenson
“All sorts of things suffer when work expands to fill evenings and weekends — health, for example, and citizenly participation. How can you frame an opinion on the issues if you never get a chance to read or have discussions with friends? But family — and especially children — take the worst hit. It's just not possible to be a responsible and responsive parent or spouse if your job(s) leave you with barely enough time to shower.” Barbara Ehrenreich
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| The Mekons Work All Week / Unknown Wrecks 7" (Virgin, 1979) |
The Mekons – Work All Week
“Wage work needs to be abolished; meaningful, freely chosen work can be as much fun as any other kind of play. Our present work usually produces practical results, but not the ones we would have chosen, whereas our free time is mostly confined to trivialities. With the abolition of wage labor, work will become more playful and play more active and creative. When people are no longer driven crazy by their work, they will no longer require mindless, passive amusements to recover from it.” Ken Knabb
“I think everybody ought to quit their job and do what they want. You've got one life. How on earth can you blow that doing something you hate?” Bill Talcott
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| VA Cottage Cheese From The Lips Of Death LP (Ward-9 Records, 1983) |
Butthole Surfers – I Hate My Job
“The great Marxist and Situationist critics of work hoped that critical theory — accurate analysis of the system’s pathologies — would change the system. The latest crisis in capitalism has shown that it will not. But a system is made of individuals, just as a market is composed of individual choices and transactions. Don’t change the system, change your life. Debord’s 'Never Work' did not go far enough. Truly understand the nature of work and its language, and you may never even think of work again!” The Wage Slave's Glossary
“Resist the call to work ever harder and longer hours. Throw your BlackBerry into the river. Unslave yourself. Hard work will not lead to health and happiness.” Tom Hodgkinson
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| Tronics Time Off / Goodbye 7" (Tronics Label, 1979) |
Tronics – Time Off
Get it here.
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For further information, please do not hesitate to vist The Idler and the International Institute of Not Doing Much.
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