Author takes a look at today's idea of work through history
— -- Surrounded by machines, technological marvels and teams of specialists, the average person pays little attention to the apparatus of the workplace and the world of manufactured goods.
This, argues Alain de Botton in The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work, is a shame. In the past, travelers to a new place might gravitate to its harbors and workshops and be as stimulated by them as anything they might see "on a stage or chapel wall."
Today's harbors should be a bigger draw, as the cargo ships that stop there are often longer than a football field and carry thousands of tons of cargo to various ports around the world.
Yet harbors go unappreciated, save for a few ship-spotters. "How much we might learn," suggests de Botton, "from the men at the end of a pier on the edges of London."
This inspired him to write what he calls a hymn to the beauty and horror of the modern workplace. De Botton uses the history of work as a lens to view the current working world.
He takes a photo essay of tuna from catch to supermarket, follows cargo ships and power-line pylons and visits a biscuit factory and career-counseling office. His conclusions:
•We no longer know how things are produced. The lack of connection produces a feeling of alienation. Those who assemble products engage in only part of the process, he says.
Though economics tells us that specialization leads to greater wealth, "however great the economic advantages of segmenting the elements of an afternoon's work into a range of forty-year-long careers, there was reason to wonder … how meaningful the lives might feel as a result."
•We have "wrested ourselves from an anxious search for the source of the next meal," yet in spite of living in a world of abundance, people are unhappy.
•"Our choice of occupation is (now) held to define our identity," which explains why we think it essential to find a calling in life. The idea that happiness should be found in one's work is a relatively recent one. A few centuries ago, work was seen as necessarily unsatisfying, with higher pleasures obtainable only through hobbies and leisure.
Related Stories
ABC News Live