As we've talked about the industrial revolution in class, I've remembered how much I enjoy that period in history. It's slightly strange that I find a lot of new machines interesting, but then again I wanted to be a train conductor in the wild west when I was little, so apparently steam and coal power naturally fit into my interests.
I think one of the most interesting things to look at involving the industrial revolution is the complete change of lifestyle that it caused. We've talked about how populations didn't appear in cities overnight, but the long term consequences of the I.R. are very profound and extend beyond pollution and noise. To me, I see the creation of a lot of values and trends that still exist in our society today.
Here are 4 things that I feel like we can trace to the Industrial Revolution that are still relevant in our society today:
1. The idea that you can get ahead by working hard and that people are poor because they're lazy is still around (just ask Neal Boortz). While many people today may say calling poor people lazy may be an extreme view in today's culture, I know plenty of people who still cling to the idea that if you work hard you can get ahead in life.
2. The separation of work time and personal time is still very much in existence today. I remember my sixth grade teacher told my class (on more than one occasion) that there is work time and there is play time, and you have to work during work time and you can play during play time. That's just a watered down version of work v. personal time. And just like Office Space shows us, there are plenty of people out there who hate their jobs but can't just walk away from them.
3. The concept of alienation of labor is second nature to us. The closest we are to the people who make our Nike shoes are when we complain about how little Nike pays them in Malaysia or Indonesia. I work at Chick-fil-a, and while I get to see a product cooked and delivered to customers, I don't raise and kill the chickens that we prepare. I pull them out of a refrigerator, and they're already cut up and go from there. Virtually no one actually works on something start to finish anymore, unless you visit a foreign country and buy something that families make in their homes to sell to tourists.
4. The disparity of wealth is still startling and eye-popping today. I found this article online earlier this week and the numbers are kind of astounding. There have always been haves and have nots, but when we look at the process of wealth concentration that started in the Industrial Revolution we can see in a lot of places that hasn't been significantly reversed. I think the worst offender is China. If my math serves me right (which it may not-feel free to correct me), .05% of China's population holds 50% of the country's wealth. And the US, Hong Kong, India, and Saudi Arabia are close behind on those types of numbers. But wow, that's absolutely astounding.
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Based on some of the stuff we’ve talked about in class and some of the things you’ve written here, I can confidently say that I am aware of some negative consequences of our industrial society. The disparity of wealth you mention is one of the most obvious and disturbing. I want to be an idealist. I really do. I want to think that human beings could live together in social harmony and equality, perhaps under a functioning system like the communism that Marx and Engels outline. But for all my wanting that, I don’t think our age could ever turn away from the Industrial Revolution, and I don’t know that we should if we could. I also believe in hard work. Granted, there are some people out there that capitalist, industrial society is going to mow over one way or another, and that’s not fair. I still, however, believe that hard work can help to a significant degree. I personally am happy with plenty that has come of the Industrial Revolution. Putting aside good health and happiness, there is honestly nothing I appreciate more than leisure time at the end of the work day to do absolutely nothing.
ReplyDeleteA really great post. I think you are correct to point out on of the popular capitalist fallacies that excuses exploitation by arguing that people who work hard get ahead. Certainly some people who get ahead work very, very hard and equating success with hard work is probably a good value system to have. However, the reverse is not always true; a failure to find success does not always imply laziness or a failure to work hard. I can think of plenty of people who would be considered less 'successful' than me who work much, much harder than I could ever imagine.
ReplyDeleteI also think the growing disparity of wealth is both telling and frightening. Are we all being pushed down into the proletariat? Was Marx right about the bourgeoisie continually expanding the proletariat by creating these disparities in wealth? Do we need to redefine our conception of proletarianization?