Are there any books about the experience of being a factory drone? I literally can't fathom that pretty much all the material wealth in the world depends on the work of busy worker-bees who perform the same action over and over again. What do these people even do? Whence do they derive joy in their lives?
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WOrkers rights and such could look into it
My diary
people like working, they like receiving money, they are free to stop and find a new job whenever they want and are only lightly coerced by the monetary realities of food and shelter (which are much less than they would be in a return to nature type situation). so really i dont see a huge problem with it
>people like working
Lol. Lmao even
The vast majority of people like working even if they think they don't. There's a fine line separating misery at work and misery outside of work. Most of what makes work miserable is the idea that others are working on something better than you. Work itself is a basic human need. Outside of work is only the abyss. Work, meaningless repetitive tasks are pure bliss for people. The whole video game industry is built on this bliss for example.
we weren't born to be slaves. did humans 200,000 years ago feel the need to work?
...yh
no?
>people like working
no
>they like receiving money
yes
>lightly coerced by the reality of possible starvation
poe's law
Just like all animals innit
True. And the structure of socialism is the same as free market capitalism.
A small but great segment in Journey to the end of the Night when he works at the Ford Factory.
>What do these people even do?
Work eight hours a day and have a life after and before those eight hours of work. I went through that, it's just a job.
I also went through that and it was hell
Saturday Night Sunday Morning
You might want to check out "Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do" by Studs Terkel. The book contains several first hand accounts by people who are working menial shitjobs.
>What do these people even do? Whence do they derive joy in their lives?
Alcohol, sex, kids
I think there's a part in a Bukowski novel(probably Factotum) where he works in a factory (also at a slaughterhouse in another oart)
Working in a factory isnt that bad, its just kinda boring. If you have to hit a certain rate or part quantity the days can go by quick but its usually just being on autopilot. Spacing out while your hands do that work.
I also recommend "A Working Stiff's Manifesto: A Memoir of Thirty Jobs I Quit, Nine That Fired Me, and Three I Can't Remember" by Iain Levison.
Levison was a sort of drifter who took whatever job he could find, mostly poorly paying shitjobs. Rather short, but highly entertaining read. Interesting glimpse into a world that is completely foreign to a white collar guy like me.
There was a documentary about Chinese factory workers and their personal lives over the course of years. Can't remember the title.
covid sort of dispelled of the notion that if people didn't have to work and had a ton of free time there would be an explosion of arts, achievement, or even happiness
That's just normies, though, who don't amount to anything most of the time. As gay as it sounds me and my friends kickstarted a bit of a poetry/writing group where we would sit around all day in nature and write and smoke weed. Even though nothing came out of it and we were just young, it helped me refine my style and get on the right tracks. Muscians I know recorded whole EPs in the months of Lockdown and I even know one girl who started sculpting the heads of famous communists throughout history and got so good at it she was able to start an Etsy shop.
Anyone with a natural inclination towards the arts will benefit when not expected to work all the time, so long as they have self-discipline to actually start
And none of these people are even noteworthy in their respective fields!
>bitter wagie can't comprehend doing something for personal gain and not finacial benefit or academic recognition
must be a sad life you live. hope you make it big one day, anon
Was Kafka?
1) This is like saying "Portland Oregon sort of dispelled the notion that decriminalizing drugs would have any benefit to society." despite a few European countries decriminalizing drugs and being fine.
Society is too complex for basic 'if x, then y' to be true 100% of the time and this goes both ways.
2) Where are all these people that didn't have to work during COVID? Myself, as well as literally everyone I know, still had to work whether they had essential jobs that they had to work on-site or if they were able to work at home.
you can't fathom that civilisations depend on slavery?
The Jungle
Goods materials food all have to be made and processed someone's gotta do it. They go to work and go home that's it it's just a job. Hobbies, loved ones you could apply that to any job anon.
On Chinese assembly line workers producing consumer electronics in poor conditions and for little pay, there’s a good book called “Dying for an iPhone”
There is also a small subculture of factory worker poets in China, though most of their work is either untranslated or translated very badly. Pic rel is an exception. I personally consider it one of the best poems in modern mandarin
http://abecedarian.ist/assembly
I'm sorry, but seeing the poem title written in simplified Chinese looks disgusting to me. I can barely even read the language, but I've just such a strong association of the style of characters and this sense of complete poverty of dignity. Maybe this actually matches the subject matter of the poem very much and is appropriate to the station of the one writing it in this instance, just it just feel like a given to me that any serious poetry would use traditional Chinese characters.
Racist or just moronic?
You essentially assemble a product but nobody realizes how insane the amount of consumption there is. Arrive at the line you were assigned. You get a repeating task to do until you move onto the next station, depending on the line. These tasks are timed at max speed but not to the point that you'll start making mistakes or injury, although the machines need constant maintenance and cleaning. If you're slow, you get hazed or an angry manager because of quotas. Each task is trivial like making sure you're counting 2 pink pills, 3 white pills, one blue pill for each package on a moving belt. Unfortunately I forget the rate some of the belts move. It's watching paint dry but with extra pressure. You have no control over your body for hours to complete the task. Everyone hates their lives so it's a social hell.
That good? I hope so. Idk if I can talk about specifics on the manufacturing process of the specific products but I've worked in automotive and supplements.
Sinclairs The Jungle. Post Office is obviously about a post office but it seems to be very much what you're looking.
One must imagine them happy.
Engels wrote a rather famous one.
Not exactly what you’re looking for but
I have worked factory jobs, am not a drone. Have done a lot of manual labor, it is physically demanding and often repetitive. It trains the body physically as well as your mental constitution.
I've built roads, built homes, worked in factories, casinos, kitchens. Outside of physical labor, I've written books, worked as a journalist, worked as a cybersecurity contractor for the DoD, and marketed large amounts of VC stock for technology investors.
I don't know if you have ever had to actually work a job for a living but you write "whence" and just seem high on your own farts. You refer to honest working people as "drones" and "worker bees" when even writing books is work.
It makes me think of young college marxists who have never worked an honest day in their life and think they know what the working class is or what is means to be a part of the working class.