If I hear one more rich fuck talk about the dignity of work...

[saras]

61. There's no dignity in "work" or "jobs". Sisyphus has a job, doing work.

There's dignity in accomplishing things of worth to people. Some jobs offer much more leeway at this than others. Some, like working on an assembly line making land mines, may not have ANY value in this way, but merely be of economic value to someone - I'll pay you all to help me beat up my neighbor's kids.

But if you worked for the post office for forty years, you don't deserve praise because you went to work every day and did a job. You and I both know that someone can do both those things, and nothing else but waste resources. You deserve praise because you made 5,000 people happier today, and kept 1000 more out of trouble, and helped keep 400 local businesses in operation. And you did THAT for forty years. Damn right that deserves dignity.

There's equal dignity in accomplishing things of worth to people via routes other than paid employment. Anyone who assists in any way in raising children, from making a playground safer to writing books to inspecting utilities to actually being a mother, father, or child care worker. Anyone who makes the lives of others around them easier or more rewarding. Volunteers. Off-the-grid workers. Good Samaritans.

But no one anywhere is going to tell me, or anyone else I know, that we need to have a BOSS in order to have DIGNITY. In fact, I'd argue that in many cases they're mutually exclusive.