How to be Saved from the Hell of Work
“Americans of all stripes—millennials especially, some argue—are indeed burned out, and elites in particular have unrealistic expectations that work be not just remunerative, but self-defining and wholly fulfilling. It’s also true that the rising devotion to work in America correlates with a decline in religious worship. But work itself is neither a religion nor a substitute for it. ... [W]ork too often accomplishes precisely the opposite of what religion promises: It saps meaning from life.”
“Thompson defines workism as ‘a kind of religion, promising identity, transcendence, and community,’ later adding that it’s ‘the belief that work is not only necessary to economic production, but also the centerpiece of one’s identity and life’s purpose; and the belief that any policy to promote human welfare must always encourage more work.’ In an increasingly secular America, ‘workism is among the most potent of the new religions competing for congregants.’”
“It may be that the decline of religious faith among America’s elite removed the restraints on a deep American drive to work and acquire. Without religious norms, there is little to keep the most ambitious from working all the time. ... When society becomes more secular, those limits on capitalist striving disappear. At that point, the capitalist spirit becomes ‘unbridled’ and, in [Max] Weber’s words, ‘the pursuit of wealth, divested of its metaphysical significance, today tends to be associated with purely elemental passions, which at times virtually turn it into a sporting contest.’ This is an uncannily accurate picture of the work-obsessed mind in twenty-first century America.”
“American Protestantism may have gotten us into our current work obsession, but it and other religions—their practices adapted, perhaps, to secular tastes—also offer a way out. Religious observance interrupts the workday or workweek. ... You don’t necessarily have to go to church or mosque or synagogue to put rituals like this in place. It’s possible to create secular versions of them. You could treat the weekend for the purpose that the labor movement intended, as two consecutive work-free days. You could even submit to an ascetical regimen to free yourself from the yoke of work.”
The Republic, March 4, 2019: “How to Save Americans From the Hell of Work,” by Jonathan Malesic
The New York Times Magazine, February 21, 2019: “Wealthy, Successful and Miserable,” by Charles Duhigg
The Atlantic, February 24, 2019: “Workism Is Making Americans Miserable,” by Derek Thompson
The New York Times, January 26, 2019: “Why Are Young People Pretending to Love Work?” by Erin Griffith
The Republic, January 10, 2019: “Millennials Don’t Have a Monopoly on Burnout,” by Jonathan Malesic
The Hedgehog Review, Vol. 20, No.3, Fall 2018: When Work and Meaning Part Ways, by Jonathan Malesic