Nothing will work unless you do. Maya Angelou
The only effective answer to organized greed is organized labor. Thomas Donahue
The first step in the evolution of ethics is a sense of solidarity with other human beings. Albert Schweitzer
We are in this together, this accumulation of scars, this world of objects, this physical and temporary heaven that so often takes on the countenance of hell. What matters is kindness; what matters is solidarity. Olivia Laing
People are not crucified for helping poor people. People are crucified for joining them. Shane Claiborne
If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. In times of universal deceit, telling the truth will be a revolutionary act. George Orwell
We stand with the demonized so that the demonizing will stop. We situate ourselves right next to the disposable so that the day will come when we stop throwing people away. Gregory Boyle
Solidarity involves commitment, and work, as well as the recognition that even if we do not have the same feelings, or the same lives, or the same bodies, we do live on common ground. Sara Ahmed
Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work. Gustave Flaubert
Without labor nothing prospers. Sophocles
Yes, we have come to another Labor Day, the end of summer for all in this hemisphere, the end of innocence for some, the end of fans stuck on “high” and waking by the light of the dawn rather than the drones of an alarm, the end of consuming farm-fresh fruits at a volume that would give fruit bats indigestion.
With due regard for the degree to which I now have to borrow energy from holidays to find enough inspiration to post, there is actually much of value to share from this weekend. This is the time when we recognize the panoply of skills and occupations which make this world prosper to the extent that it can be said to do so. Within a single building or neighborhood, the various ways in which people piece together lives and livelihoods are inspirational, if not always recognized as such. People engage in their “work,” honored and not, fairly compensated and not, enjoyable and not, empowering and not, in an effort to take care of what is most important to them and navigate our increasingly complex and technology-driven societies.
And while we tend to pay little attention to those who pick up our trash, care for our elderly, harvest our fruits and vegetables, run the credit cards for our “happy meals,” or perform many other tasks that the rest of us would wish not to do without, were we to sit with this inattentiveness for a bit we would have to admit that our consumer-driven and competitive cultures currently require vast amounts of this labor, labor which we might have dabbled in during a more youthful incarnation but which most who bother to read these posts would not see as containing any element of aspiration. That we need so much of what too many of us tend to disregard if not outright disrespect (and this would include vital minerals mined by children under horrific conditions) is a discontinuity more akin to a profound moral failure than some clever incarnation of unearned privilege.
And of course, threats to those “hanging on” with jobs that don’t compensate sufficiently and demand a great deal physically and mentally continue to grow. The growth spurt of artificial intelligence which (like much “advanced” technology) no one I know was asking for, threatens labor in many fields and contexts, but certainly those “hanging on” the most. AI promises to kick to the curb those who have barely managed to stay on the sidewalk with not even a “thank you for your service.” Indeed, one of the reasons that I have long advocated for “universal basic income” (UBI) is that it would provide just enough “order and regularity” such that people could choose to care for gardens and relatives, to join religious or political movements, to create art and meaning for others, to increase rather than reduce the amount of “intentionality” in the world, to provide real alternatives to the desperate pursuing of dead-end jobs that fail to provide basic security for families and in the age of AI are set to evaporate like raindrops in a desert.
UBI would allow people to cultivate and practice skills which they possess but have not had opportunity to incarnate. Indeed, part of the honoring of Labor Day is directed towards the dazzling array of skills by which I am continually surrounded, skills I admire but don’t have, skills I need from others and cannot generate within myself. Indeed, as someone whose skills set is quite narrow and limited, confined now to writing pithy things when the mood hits and providing advice for policymakers who pretty much have no intention of heeding it, I am continually astounded by what people are able to do in this world – the cabinets and clothes they make, the repairs that keep old cars and houses functional, the ability to maintain water resources and other civilian infrastructure. the vegetables and fruits they know how to plant and harvest – these and much more are skills which I do not possess but can certainly respect and even revere. These are among the skills that keep our world from plunging into utter discouragement. These are among the innumerable and necessary responses to tasks for which my name will never appear on any call list.
But in the end, honoring is a relatively easy bar to achieve if it does not produce more than sentiment or what is now commonly known as “virtue signaling.” For as we honor labor there is the obligation to solidarity with the laborer, the people who endure the grind which keeps this leaky ship of ours afloat. Solidarity takes real effort, occasionally even real sacrifice. It involves telling the truth about the ways in which so much labor strips away the dignity we insist upon for ourselves. It involves concrete actions in political and economic realms to ensure that those who work in fields and factories have at least basic access to health care and educational opportunities for themselves and their families. And it involves counter-balancing false narratives, including setting straight what has become the “universal deceit” about “job stealing,” criminally-minded immigrants who seek only to sow violence and discord amongst our erstwhile law-abiding citizenry.
On this Labor Day, more and more of us are facing a crisis of disposability as more and more technical, financial and political power concentrates in the hands of those with large ambitions couched in “solutions” which are largely self-referencing. This crisis applies to me, to my neighbors, to many millions of workers all global regions. We are all at risk of having our skills and values denigrated outright or at a miminum restricted to smaller and smaller circles of interest. Indeed, as I write this, the “common ground” of labor which we would do well to acknowledge and support appears to be collapsing under our feet. Let us pledge before the next Labor Day to restore at least some of its firmness.
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