加载中…The Worker as Creator or Machine
(2011-01-20 12:38:42)
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The
Worker as Creator or
Machine
Erich Fromm
1 Unless man exploits others, he has to work in order to live.
However primitive and simple his method of work may be, by the very
fact of production, he has risen above the animal kingdom; rightly
has he been defined as "the animal that produces." But work is not
only an inescapable necessity for man. Work is also his liberator
from nature, his creator as a social and independent being. In the
process of work, that is, the molding and changing of nature
outside of himself, man molds and changes himself. He emerges from
nature by mastering her; he develops his powers of co-operation, of
reason, his sense of beauty. He separates himself from nature, from
the original unity with her, but at the same time unites himself
with her again as her master and builder. The more his work
develops, the more his individuality develops. In molding nature
and re-creating her, he learns to make use of his powers,
increasing his skill and creativeness. Whether we think of the
beautiful paintings in the caves of Southern France, the ornaments
on weapons among primitive people, the statues and temples of
Greece, the cathedrals of the Middle Ages, the chairs and tables
made by skilled craftsmen, or the cultivation of flowers, trees or
corn by peasants--all are expressions of the creative
transformation of nature by man's reason and skill.
2 In Western history, craftsmanship, especially as it developed
in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, constitutes one of the
peaks in the evolution of creative work. Work was not only a useful
activity, but one which carried with it a profound satisfaction.
The main features of craftsmanship have been very lucidly expressed
by C. W. Mills. "There is no ulterior motive in work other than the
product being made and the processes of its creation. The details
of dally work are meaningful because they are not detached in the
worker's mind from the product of the work. The worker is free to
control his own working action. The craftsman is thus able to learn
from his work; and to use and develop his capacities and skills in
its prosecution. There is no split of work and play, or work and
culture. The craftsman' s way of livelihooddetermines and infuses
his entire mode of living."
3 3 With the collapse of the medieval structure, and the
beginning of the modern mode of production, the meaning and
function of work changed fundamentally, especially in the
Protestantcountries. Man, being afraid of his newly won freedom,
was obsessed by the need to subdue his doubts and fears by
developing a feverish activity. The out-come of this activity,
success or failure, decided his salvation, indicating whether he
was among the saved or the lost souls. Work, instead of being an
activity satisfying in itself and pleasurable, became a duty and an
obsession . The more it was possible to gain riches by work, the
more it became a pure means to the aim of wealth and success. Work
became, in Max Weber's terms, the chief factor in a system of
"inner-worldly asceticism ," an answer to man's sense of aloneness
and isolation.
4 However, work in this sense existed only for the upper and
middle classes, those who could amass some capital and employ the
work of others. For the vast majority of those who had only their
physical energy to sell, work became nothing but forced labor. The
worker in the eighteenth or nineteenth century who had to work
sixteen hours if he did not want to starve was not doing it because
he served the Lord in this way, nor because his success would show
that he was among the "chosen " ones,, but because he was forced to
sell his energy to those who had the means of exploiting it. The
first centuries of the modern era find the meaning of work divided
into that of duty among the middle class, and that of forced labor
among those without property.
5 The religious attitude toward work as a duty, which was still
so prevalent in the nineteenth century, has been changing
considerably in the last decades. Modern man does not know what to
do with himself, how to spend his lifetime meaningfully, and he is
driven to work in order to avoid an unbearable boredom. But work
has ceased to be a moral and religious obligation in the sense of
the middle class attitude of the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries. Something new has emerged. Ever-increasing production,
the drive to make bigger and better things, have become aims in
themselves, new ideals. Work has become alienated from the working
person.
6 What happens to the industrial worker? He spends his best
energy for seven or eight hours a day in producing "something." He
needs his work in order to make a living, but his role is
essentially a passive one. He fulfills a small isolated function in
a complicated and highly organized process of production, and is
never confronted with "his" product as a whole, at least not as a
producer, but only as a consumer, provided he has the money to buy
"his" product in a store. He is concerned neither with the whole
product in its physical aspects nor with its wider economic and
social aspects. He is put in a certain place, has to carry out a
certain task, but does not participate in the organization or
management of the work. He is not interested nor does he know why
one produces this, instead of another commodity--what relation it
has to the needs of society as a whole. The shoes, the cars, the
electric bulbs, are produced by "the enterprise," using the
machines. He is a part of the machine, rather than its master as an
active agent. The machine, instead of being in his service to do
work for him which once had to be performed by sheer physical
energy, has become his master. Instead of the machine being the
substitute for human energy, man has become a substitute for the
machine. His work can be defined as the performance of acts which
cannot yet be performedby machines.
7 Work is a means of getting money, not in itself a meaningful
human activity. P. Drucker, observing workers in the automobile
industry, expresses this idea very succinctly "For the great
majority of automobile workers, the only meaning of the job is in
the pay check, not in anything connected with the work or the
product. Work appears as something unnatural, a disagreeable,
meaningless and stultifying condition of getting the pay check,
devoid of dignity as well as of importance. No wonder that this
puts a premium on slovenly work, on slowdowns , and on other tricks
to get the same pay check with less work. No wonder that this
results in an unhappy and discontented worker--because a pay check
is not enough to base one's self-respect on."
8 This relationship of the worker to his work is an outcome of
the whole social organization of which he is a part. Being
"employed," he is not an active agent, has no responsibility except
the proper performance of the isolated piece of work he is doing,
and has little interest except the one of bringing home enough
money to support himself and his family. Nothing more is expected
of him, or wanted from him. He is part of the equipment hired by
capital, and his role and function are determined by this quality
of being a piece of equipment. In recent decades, increasing
attention has been paid to the psychology of the worker, and to his
attitude toward his work, to the "human problem of industry"; but
this very formulation is indicative of the underlying attitude;
there is a human being spending most of his lifetime at work, and
what should be discussed is the "industrial problem of human
beings," rather than "the human problem of industry."
9 Most investigations in the field of industrial psychology are
concerned with the question of how the productivity of the
individual worker can be increased, and how he can be made to work
with less friction; psychology has lent its services to "human
engineering," an attempt to treat the worker and employee like a
machine which runs better when it is well oiled. While Taylor was
primarily concerned with a better organization of the technical use
of the worker's physical powers, most industrial psychologists are
mainly concerned with the manipulation of the worker's psyche The
underlying idea can be formulated like this: if he works better
when he is happy, then let us make him happy, secure, satisfied, or
anything else, provided it raises his output and diminishes
friction. In the name of " human relations," the worker is treated
with all devices which suit values are recommended in the interest
of better relations a completely alienated person; even happiness
and human with the public. Thus, for instance, according to Time
magazine, one of the best-known American psychiatrists said to a
group of fifteen hundred Supermarket executives: "It's going to be
an increased satisfaction to our customers if we are happy... It is
going to pay off in cold dollars and cents to management, if we
could put some of these general principles of values, human
relationships, really into practice." One speaks of "human
relations" and one means the most inhuman relations, those between
alienated automatons ; one speaks of happiness and means the
perfect routinization which has driven out the last doubt and all
spontaneity
10 The alienated and profoundly unsatisfactory character of work
results in two reactions: one, the ideal of complete laziness; the
other a deep-seated, though often unconscious hostility toward work
and everything and everybody connected with it.
11 It is not difficult to recognize the widespread longing for
the state of complete laziness and passivity. Our advertising
appeals to it even more than to sex, There are, of course, many
useful and labor saving gadgets . But this usefulness often serves
only as a rationalization for the appeal to complete passivity and
receptivity. A package of breakfast cereal is being advertised as
"new--easier to eat." An electric toaster is advertised with these
words: "... the most distinctly different toaster in the world!
Everything is done for you with this new toaster. You need not even
bother to lower the bread. Power-action, through a unique electric
motor, gently takes the bread right out of your fingers!" How many
courses in languages, or other subjects, are announced with the
slogan" effortless learn- ins, no more of the old drudgery."
Everybody knows the picture of the elderly couple in the
advertisement of a life-insurance company, who have retired at the
age of sixty, and spend their life in the complete bliss of having
nothing to do except just travel.
12 Radio and television exhibit another element of this yearning
for laziness: the idea of "push-button power"; by pushing a button,
or turning a knob on my machine, I have the power to produce music,
speeches, ball games, and on the television set, to command events
of the world to appear before my eyes. The pleasure of driving cars
certainly rests partly upon this same satisfaction of the wish for
push-button power. By the effortless pushing of a button, a
powerful machine is set in motion; little skill and effort are
needed to make the driver feel that he is the ruler of space.
13 But there is far more serious and deep-seated reaction to the
meaninglessness and boredom of work. It is a hostility toward work
which is much less conscious than our craving for laziness and
inactivity. Many a businessman feels himself the prisoner of his
business and the commodities he sells; he has a feeling of
fraudulency about his product and a secret contempt for it. He
hates his customers, who force him to put up a show in order to
sell. He hates his competitors because they are a threat; his
employees as well as his superiors, because he is in a constant
competitive fight with them. Most important of all, he hates
himself, because he sees his life passing by, without making any
sense beyond the momentary intoxication of success. Of course, this
hate and contempt for others and for oneself, and for the very
things one produces, is mainly unconscious, and only occasionally
comes up to awareness in a fleeting thought, which is sufficiently
disturbing to be set aside as quickly as possible.
(from A Rhetorical Reader, Invention and Design,
by Forrest D. Burt and E. Cleve Want)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NOTES
1. Fromm: Erich Fromm (1900- 1980), German-born psychoanalyst,
has taught at universities in the United States and Mexico. Among
his many books are: Psychoanalysis and Religion ; Marx' s Concept
of Man ; Escape from Freedom ; The Sane Society; and The Crisis of
Psychoanalysis.
2. beautiful paintings in the caves of Southern France: referring
to paintings and engravings on the rock face in the caves in France
and Spain made by primitive man during the old stone age around
50,000 to 100,000 B. C.
3. C. W. Mills: author of White Collar ( 1951 ), from which this
quotation is taken.
4. Protestant countries: referring to Germany, Switzerland,
Scandinavia, the Netherlands, the British Isles and Early America
5. Weber: Max Weber (1864- 1920), German sociologist, economist,
and political writer. On the origin of capitalism in the West, his
famous theory was as follows: Calvinism, Anabaptism, and their
various combinations consider that man's economic success, achieved
by an industrious life, proves that he is a chosen child of God.
These religions thus provide an impulse to build up capital and to
develop a capitalistic society, as occurred especially in the
United States.
词汇(Vocabulary)
cathedral
(n.)
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peak
(n.)
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lucid
(adj.)
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ulterior
(adj.)
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prosecution
(n.)
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infuse
(v.)
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protestant
(adj.)
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obsess
(v.)
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subdue
(v.)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
asceticism
(n.)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
succinct
(adj.)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
stultify
(v.)．
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devoid
(adj.)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
premium
(n.)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
slovenly
(adj.)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
slowdown
(n.)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
manipulation
(n.)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
psyche
(n.)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
psychiatrist
(n.)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
routinize
(v.)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
spontaneity
(n.)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
deep—seated
(adj.)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
gadget
(n.)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
cereal
(n.)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
toaster
(n.)
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drudgery
(n.)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
bliss
(n.)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
knob
(n.)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
craving
(n.)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
fraudulency
(n.)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
intoxication
(n.)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
fleeting
(adj.)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
短语 (Expressions)
be
obsessed
by／with
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devoid
of
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put／place
a premium
on
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be
indicative
of
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in
the naIne
of
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
pay
off
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
rest
upon／on
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
set／put
sth.in
motion
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