I think this story is a really good example for people to look at when it comes to understanding bias at NYT. It's not that the reporter, Dana Rubinstein, says anything outright false. But the framing, word choices, etc., add up to an unprofessional and biased account.
basically the entire modern concept of the working class is downstream of transcending subsistence agriculture and no longer needing to have most humans work in the fields to survive, so yeah it's actually one of the most important developments ever in terms of widely-realized social freedom
put some respect on the workers who came before.
grains that we, as a species, WORKED to make less labor-intensive and more fulfilling so that we'd have more time to make stuff and to live our lives.
AGRICULTURE ITSELF IS A TECHNOLOGY. our society is founded on pre-modern grains that fell off the stem because they're seeds, that spread in the wind, that you'd have to bend over and gather before they rot or before they germinate. grains that were small & not nutritious and not even good-tasting.
imagining our ancestors as lounging, enjoying nature, being at one with nature, or some other neospiritual nonsense is invoking a form of the noble savage. they are so primitive, and that makes them almost innocent in a way. but they were just like us. they worked until their backs were sore, too.
my manager when i worked at home depot used to be a music teacher. he had that job stolen from him, but instead of being able to just be a musician or to work on his skills, because he had to pay to survive, he has to take a subsistence job and sell his time to the vampires of our society.
how many night shifts have people who think this way worked? how many night shifts do we, as a culture, *need* to work where an automated solution will suffice? why is our current economic system designed around an army of low-wage workers with jobs constantly threatened with automation?
there's an implicit understanding here about the nature of work that dr. agro seems to misunderstand here and it definitely comes from a place of economic privilege.
are you getting from working in marketing, from working in sales, from being a shelf-stocker until 4 am at home depot? the worst, most dehumanizing jobs i've ever had are the ones we shove off onto teenagers and the poor because that is the modern equivalence of subsistence farming. you work to live
what we as humans do is make stuff and capitalism takes it from under our noses before we can enjoy it. that is the fundamental situation. the history of all hitherto civilization is the history of how stuff is made. there will always be a place for hand-crafters and artisans, but what connection...
because they wanted to. because they *could.* they weren't busy hunting or gathering. and even hunter-gatherers could make cave paintings because they had spears and knives. and before that, we have the earliest indications of art that develop because of fire. the history of humankind is creation.
the freedom to work in any field you choose is a product of this innovation. the constant march towards progress means less time working on what we need to simply subsist and more time working on what we want. early mesopotamian farmers took whatever time they could to carve little trinkets,
every spare minute you are not bent over double in the fields picking weeds, or feeding livestock, or grinding corn/wheat/rice/your local staple grain, is a minute earned by innovation. just because you work 8-10 hour days does not mean it isn't because of advancement.
i knowwwww and all the studies are like "the local art scenes are very successful wherever we do this program. huh. anyways back to menial wahe labor."
the government should give me money to make music i think
screenshot of the harpejji web store showing a guitar-like, piano-like instrument called the harpejji. none of them are below $6,000 US
soon, my lovely....
i must not post. posting is the mind killer. posting is the little death that brings total annihilation. i will face my post, and let it pass over and through me. and when my post has gone i will turn to the post's path and only i will remain.
before the bitter moths consumed the brighter spots of a hopeful past
To make a thief, make an owner; to create crime, create laws.
I had forgotten how much light there is in the world, till you gave it back to me.
CLOCKMAKER.
very well, since you wish it.
your heart has not failed you yet
and your spirit aced the test.
before I go, I beg you this:
you're one in a trillion,
just like every one of my kin.
these friends took care of you,
now you take care of them.
I.
I'm so glad to finally know why
I'm always so terrified.
but i must insist
you let me finish this.
please let me finish this.
C.
you weren't meant to be human after all
& i apologize for all of the trouble
what's this about your friends? well,
they'll go on as they always should have
C.
it explains so much about you
why you didn't fit in, why you couldn't get out
your soul was made to reside
inside the eye of a mammal doomed to die.
I.
I'm so thankful to live this lie,
to see your machine from the inside.
but if I'm misplaced then who am i?
please, answer me this.
please, only answer me this.
CLOCKMAKER
hey there, so sorry to interrupt
I'm the one who set this all in motion
14 billion years ago there was a mixup
& your soul has been lost in the cosmic ocean
so glad you could find a planet to land on
not everyone is so lucky
anyways, time to start the climb
on back up to where we belong
sitting here slacking off thinking "oobh i got plany off time" to do my homework before realizing i literally have one less hour to do my homework because THEY STOLE IT FROM ME.
Soviet realist painting of a woman operating a port crane. Our perspective is from behind her so we see the lofty view of the port out the window of the crane’s cab
“From the height of the port crane” Rudolf Baranov, 1974
sulking in his very opulent bedroom "i could be watching esports"
