Concluding Thoughts

15 December 2015

In the End...

Expo 1213 - What is Work?

Maddy Payne

Work is work. Work is getting up in the morning to brush your teeth and wash your face.  It is going to classes everyday and resisting the temptation to skip.  It is getting a job and working for pay.  Work is everywhere.  Work is also slaving away in sweat shops, being forced into the sex slavery business, and getting paid seventy some cents an hour while men are paid a dollar.  Work is a fundamental word that holds many different meanings and connotations.  It is seen and found everywhere - good or bad, fair or unfair.  

This semester I learned a lot about work.  Personally - with having a lot of homework, and in class - with learning about work.  Before taking this course, I never really questioned what the word "work" really meant or what it could be applied to.  For me, work was getting a job, going in for shifts, and getting a pay check at the end of the month.  However, after this course I have learned that work is actually so much more.  I learned that work connects to and is found is so many different things - books, poems, pictures, cartoons, world issues, gender inequality, slavery, alienation, the absurd, technology, utopia and dystopia, idleness, emotional labor, stereotypes, incentive, jargons, bullshit and more.  

And, as a result of this course, I have become a better writer.  I have become better at analyzing and interpreting things.  And I have become better at making connections between sources.  

I am grateful for all that has been taught to me this semester and I would 100% recommend this course to anyone.  

Thanks!

Maddy Payne

BNW

15 December 2015

Work and Technology

Expo 1213 - What is Work?

Maddy Payne

The society of Brave New World (BNW), in addition to being a contradiction within itself, also warns the American society of technology and the power that comes with it. Technology effects most aspects within the BNW society - birth, life and death. Individual, intellectual, and spiritual growth is limited by technology and work in BNW.

"In the Bottling Room all was harmonious bustle and ordered activity. Flaps of fresh sow's peritoneum ready cut to the proper size came shooting up in little lifts from the Organ Store in the sub-basement. Whizz and then, click! the lift-hatches hew open; the bottle-liner had only to reach out a hand, take the flap, insert, smooth-down, and before the lined bottle had had time to travel out of reach along the endless band, whizz, click! another flap of peritoneum had shot up from the depths, ready to be slipped into yet another bottle, the next of that slow interminable procession on the band. (1.32)"

The quote above shows how so humans are not even reproducing anymore; instead, they are reproducing through work. Babies are made through test tubes, technology, and science. They are conditioned with technology to act and think a certain way. And, put simply, they act as a commodity rather than an individual. In this society technology and advancements contain all the things these people need to live their lives. They are entirely depend upon it. Technology has replaced child birth, family, love, reading, philosophy, thinking, and religion.


The danger of working with technology is that it is consuming. Even today we can see technology taking over people's lives. Work itself is consuming and can alienate people from their lives and themselves. And, working with technology, the individual is already alienating him or herself from others and thus, alienating themselves faster.

Free Write: Connections between alienated labor and the absurd

12 November 2015

The Absurd

Expo 1213 - What is Work?

Maddy Payne

What connections do you/can you make/see between alienated labor (or alienation) and the absurd? 

THE connections between alienated labor and the absurd come in the form of doing meaningless work that does not satisfy anyone or anything and trying to find inherent value there but not discovering any. 

Many people today perform work that alienates them from the work itself.  When people get up in the morning it is like the same routine everyday over and over again.  It is somewhat robotic and what used to be pleasant become monotonous.  However, this idea is also ironic because the individual can be alone in the world while he or she is constantly surrounded by people.  

You are alienated from work, which alienates you, and then work becomes your identity.  

My brain hurts. 

Utopia or Dystopia?

1 December 2015

Brave New World
Expo 1213 - What is Work?

Maddy Payne

Brave New World, written by Aldous Huxley, is a contradiction within itself because it presents itself as a utopian society; however, for some it is clearly a dystopian society.  Particularly for the Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon people, it is a utopian society since they were born with a less developed brain because they were given less oxygen before birth.  The three lower classes neither have an understanding of anything besides their basic needs and the norms of society nor do they question the ways of society.  They simply exists and keep the society alive - living, working, reproducing, dying, and repeat.  

Most Alphas and Betas also function in a similar way; however, they have a more developed brain.  And, as a result, a small amount of Alphas will, time to time, question the system and go against the norms of their society - the norms that have been deep seated in them since birth.  An example of a character who does not see this Brave New World as a utopian society is Bernard Marx- an Alpha that does not feel as if he can fit in. 

Brave New World presents a interesting type of utopian society that in a way disguise the characteristics that do not make it a utopian society.  Everyone is "equal;" yet the reproduction system in BNW includes giving certain eggs less oxygen.  Thus, there really is not a choice.  The people of this society are also trained even before birth to act, see, and think a particular way.  There are no wars; there is no poverty.  Everyone is free from religion.  Everyone is free from emotional connections.  Everyone is free from families.  And everybody belongs to everyone else. 

And yet, is it truly a utopian society if people are being controlled to act, think, and see a certain way?  Then there are those like Bernard who break free from the holds of this BNW society; and when he does the society around him quickly goes from being a utopian to a dystopian.  Once Bernard challenged the status quo, goes against society, and starts to think on his own, he is banished by Mustapha Mond. 

Seemingly free.... but not truly. 

One Morning...

23 November 2015

Either Way, You Put It On

Expo 1213 - What is Work?

Maddy Payne

All roads lead back to forgetting about it.  Whether we look at the label or not, the fact is, the working conditions these people (who make our clothing) face are not present where we are.  They are, simply put, out of sight, out of mind.  The cartoon shown below demonstrated the ignorance of the American consumer.  How many times do you stop and think about the child that likely sewed together or made the clothing you are wearing right now?  Probably close to none.  

The Chast New Yorker

In the end, all paths lead back to forgetting about it. Americans live in a type of bubble where many do not realize what is actually going on around them.  We live alienated from those who make our clothing, provide our food, produce our products, etc. Likewise, those who perform these tasks also remain alienated from us.  

These people who remain alienated from the world are stuck in the capitalistic features that make up our world. That is the issue with our world today - with America today.  The issue of living in a capitalistic world is becoming a part of something (a function that serves only for a bigger purpose) and losing one's sense of humanity.

Slavery Then and Now

2 November 2015

Never Truly Gone

Expo 1213 - What is Work?

Maddy Payne

"Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.".

- Passed by Congress January 31, 1865

When people think "slavery," they generally think of the chains, whips, and abuse that was inflicted upon, first, the Native Americans and then later the African Americans.  However, slavery is still present today.  Unlike slavery during the antebellum period when it was legal and socially acceptable, today slavery is hidden from the public eye and involves millions of people from all over the world.  In a way, slavery today is actually worse than slavery back then because of how little the world knows about it and sees it.  Every now and then something will come up in the news about it; however, effort to end human trafficking are still few.  Moreover, slavery today comes in three forms:

1. Labor slavery

2. Sex slavery

3. Child slavery 

All of which generate tons of money for traffickers each year.  

Another reason why slavery today is a lot worse than slavery during the Antebellum period is because the humans being caught and trapped into modern day slavery are usually human who are poor, impoverished, and insignificant in the bigger picture.  That being said, these people who are trafficked are cheap and disposable because no one will come looking for them and even if they were important enough, the family said person came from most likely would not have enough money or resources to find their missing family member.  The problem is that some of these people that are being trafficked do not even understand the degree to which he or she is being exploited.  

Slavery is: 

-not knowing the value of work

-discrimination

-worldwide

Big problem: Governments, policemen (law enforcers) sometimes do not do anything to help stop slavery and allow it to go unpunished. 

How are these people supposed to escape if the very people who enforce the laws and supposedly stop the "bad" are allowing the bad to go unpunished (and sometimes are even involved in the trafficking)?  

**I read an extremely interesting book on human trafficking today... but I cannot remember the exact name. I will find it and post about it once I remember. 

Ain't I A Woman?

21 October 2015

Then and Now
Expo 1213 - What is Work?

Maddy Payne

IN her speech "Ain't I A Woman," she addresses many of the gender issues she faced while working, some of which are still extremely prominent today.  Sojourner Truth poses the question "Ain't I A Woman?" and then goes on to describe the stereotypes and unequal treatment women receive.  It is extremely interesting though because she presents the typical woman as someone who "needs to be helped into carriage and lifted over ditches."  However, she also states "Nobody ever helped me into carriage, or over mud puddles," signifying there is more than a gender issue here.  Truth notes that, in addition to women being considered the weaker, lesser gender, race also plays a big role in how she is treated by society.  She is both a minority of genders and races -being a woman and African American.  

In the second stanza she calls out "Look at me Look at my arm!" indicating that her work is a man's work, her arms are like a man's arms and yet, is she not a woman? She even goes as far to say that she has plowed, planted, and gathered into barns and "no man could head" her.  In addition to work, she also bears the lash as men do, but is she not a woman? Women are supposed to be carried over puddles and placed into carriages; yet, she is being worked as hard as a man and lashed, too.

The only identification she mentions about being a women is giving birth to thirteen children, most of which were sold into slavery.  Even then, she is not truly allowed to be a (woman) mother because her children are taken from her.  

Moreover, some men around her state "a woman can't have as much rights are a man cause Christ wasn't a woman."  Truth replies by asking "Where did your Christ come from?"  The answer: God and a woman.  Truth's poem addresses more than the gender inequality, but also racial inequality and the effects of it. Women are given little respect and credit in society and women of color are given even less. 

Today, the racial inequalities in society are still present; however, they are are a lot more subtle. Gender inequalities however are still seen today especially in the workplace. 

Sidenote:

Gender inequality today is demonstrated in-

- Sports

- Pay (job wages)

- Politics 

- Types of jobs 

If women were paid equally a lot of social problems would be decreased. 

Sources: 

Copyright © Sojourner Truth, 1852 & Erlene Stetson (Speech)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ariel-smilowitz/for-us-women-inequality-takes-many-forms_b_7064348.html (Image)