Monday, June 8, 2009
Manual work as sucking very much
Tom Smith
With the publication of this book, I anticipate an outpouring of electrons on how wonderful manual work is. That's all very good, but let's keep it in perspective. In many ways, manual work can really suck. I know lots of people grew up on farms and this allowed them to go on be CEOs of giant corporations. Well, that's great. But I think for most people, manual work is well, just really hard and unpleasant, something you do because you have to. One recalls what the Irish laborer said to JFK during a campaign stop: "Jackie, they're saying you haven't worked a day in your life, but let me tell ya, ya haven't missed a ting."
https://rightcoast.typepad.com/rightcoast/2009/06/manual-work-as-sucking-very-much-tom-smith-.html
Comments
In high school I earned money over the summers teaching swim lessons to kids and lifeguarding. When I read *A River Runs Through It* I felt like the irresponsible younger brother, and thought I had wimped out by not volunteering to fight forest fires. But then again, my twin brother worked at the Better Business Bureau instead. Wimpy or not, I was definitely the brighter twin.
Posted by: Michael F. Martin | Jun 8, 2009 2:04:22 PM
Oh and let's be honest: fixing exotic motorcycles is about as white collar as it gets on the manual labor spectrum.
Posted by: Michael F. Martin | Jun 8, 2009 2:05:01 PM
Exactly right. My dad is 50+ with swollen knees and a broken body. A lifetime spent in factories and salvage yards.
I detassled corn for $5.35 an hour. Start at 4 a.m. when it's cold and the corn is wet. End at 3 p.m. when the hot is sun and the dry corn gives you corn rash. Never again.
Posted by: Mike | Jun 8, 2009 2:48:26 PM
On the other hand, with manual labor you get the chance to actually see what you've accomplished - the fields plowed, the drains, cleaned, the products produced and so on. No offense to academics, but how does a professor measure their work? How much satisfaction does a bureaucrat get from moving papers from one pile to another?
Posted by: steve sturm | Jun 8, 2009 3:08:44 PM
I don't think he's so much valorizing manual work as what we might call craft-work. There's a world of difference between the guy lugging cement or de-tassling corn and the guy doing masonry work or carpentry or what-not. It's not to say that even that sort of manual work is easy or whatever (I spent a summer framing houses in Florida), but it has value for human flourishing.
Posted by: Bryan | Jun 8, 2009 6:26:12 PM
Did you read the excerpt a while back from New Yorker? It's very psychologically revealing.
The guy wants truth and certainty. He couldn't find that in public policy, so he retreated to motorcycles - and all their Newtonian glory.
I view writing as craft.
I am also comfortable with ambiguity.
He works on motor cycles because he's weak minded.
Posted by: Mike | Jun 9, 2009 9:23:29 AM
When I was a schoolboy I made money in the summer unloading cement from small freight boats. The bloody stuff gets into every pore, and the bags were a hundredweight (112 lb), and a bugger to maneouvre. I moved onto working on a trawler as it was easier and more varied. It's OK when you know it's not going to be your job for life.
Posted by: dearieme | Jun 8, 2009 1:35:52 PM