Idea Farming Versus Actual Farming -- Why We Lose Something When We Cut Out All Physical Labor
I love modern conveniences and I especially love how they allow me to have more time for my writing.
However, I'm just about to finish my next book -- an intensely science-based book that's spent the better part of three years trying to kill me.
During that time, a lot has fallen by the wayside. My house came to look like, well, a walk-in fire hazard with a bed and an oven. Books and papers were piled EVERYWHERE but in the bathtub.
I have a friend staying over this coming weekend, and I used this as my excuse to finally start tidying stuff up -- and ridding the place of dust, uh, brontasauruses.
I'd do a writing jag and then do a 20-minute cleaning jag. And, you know, the cleaning jags made the writing jags feel better.
The reality is, physical work gives us an immediate sense of accomplishment, and that's psychologically very satisfying to us.
Victor Davis Hanson has an op-ed in the LA Times on what is lost as physical jobs disappear. He doesn't explicitly make the psychological connection to the immediate sense of accomplishment, but he notes some stuff in that general neighborhood:
There seems a human instinct to want to do physical work....Physical work, moreover, has an intrinsic satisfaction in that it is real, in the primordial sense that nonphysical work is not. The head of the Federal Reserve may be more important to our general welfare than the city road crew patching asphalt roads, but there remains something wondrous in transforming material conditions through the hands, an act that can be seen and felt rather than just spoken or written about. Changing the physical landscape, either by building or destroying something previously constructed or altering it, lends a sense of confidence that the human body can still manifest one's ideas by concrete action.
...Especially valuable in muscular work is some appreciation of the tragic view of the world. For the last four decades, I have split my time between teaching classics and writing, and working on a farm. I cannot say that either world is nobler than the other. But I did learn that farm laborers complained much less about their own often-unenviable lots than did academics about their comparatively enviable compensation and generous time off. Working outdoors, often alone, with one's hands encourages a tragic acceptance of nature and its limitations. Talking and writing indoors with like kind promote a more therapeutic sense that life can be changed through discourse and argument.
It follows logically that I learned more from teaching undergraduates at Cal State Fresno than from students at Stanford -- not because they knew Greek and Latin better (most did not) but because they often worked 20 hours or more per week at minimum-wage jobs and thus had a far wider range of experience with (and empathy for) characters and events found in Aristophanes, Euripides and Hesiod in the pre-modern world of the Greeks.
My friends and I were just talking about this and the impact on our children. My kids see me sitting in front of a computer and don't understand that I'm working because to them, computers are for fun.
Suzanne Lucas at July 10, 2017 12:28 AM
I think in the future they are going to trace a large component of mental illness to an indoor sedentary lifestyle and a high carb low fat diet.
Isab at July 10, 2017 3:37 AM
Interesting, Suzanne.
I also find that mental work of the intensity of writing from research and writing humor (which takes more than simply, say, writing a response to an email) requires breaks or your brain gets tapped out.
And Isab, I suspect you're right on mental illness. I worry about the sendentary thing. I do high intensity interval training on my bike and lift weights and do pushups (army-style, 10, plus 10 situps and 10 pushups with a wheel thing) every time I make coffee.
I do this not to lose weight (because I eat a very low carb/high fat diet, which keeps me slim). I do it to keep bodily healthy, but especially, cognitively healthy.
People ask me, don't I miss bread, cookies, french fries, and Coke? Well, not enough to suffer what I suspect would be the health effects, especially later in life.
Amy Alkon at July 10, 2017 4:13 AM
"The head of the Federal Reserve may be more important to our general welfare than the city road crew patching asphalt roads ..."
No, the pothole guys have a much larger impact on my daily life. The federal reserve (not just the head) only impact me when I'm looking to borrow money. I just don't buy houses that often and they have little effect on car loans.
My experience with mental/physical work is that physical work and exercise helps me heal mental stress. Increasing my physical stamina appears to also increase my mental stamina. But it is soo easy to put off that next workout.
Ben at July 10, 2017 7:05 AM
Amy, while I applaud your discipline in doing solitary workouts, I think you're missing that most physical labor is done in groups and so a social activity, as well. Increasingly, office work is done before computers and is essentially solitary. Perhaps the lack of social interaction is a reason for increasing antisocial behavior.
Wfjag at July 10, 2017 7:28 AM
Mens sana in corpore sano.
That should ring a bell.
Radwaste at July 10, 2017 8:01 AM
The Federal Reserve directly affects the ability of your city to finance fixing those potholes, as well as the ability of local businesses to get financing for expansions and regular operations. Through the money supply it affects the pricing at your local stores.
Conan the Grammarian at July 10, 2017 8:31 AM
Well said, Ben. Most adults and children, I suspect, resent meaningless exercise, like a hamster in a wheel. Some may think of exercising with a bunch of strangers in a class as a good social activity, but I don't. So physical work kills two birds with one stone. (Another thing I don't enjoy - the leisure activity of sailing in circles on a lake. Sailing TO a destination and back would be different.)
Also, any children old enough to start demanding payment for work they shouldn't get paid for can be taught that EVERYONE has unpaid work to do (even the super-rich have to meet with their investment counselors) and so kids need to accept that, stop whining, and realize that one benefit of physical work is that they'll be less likely to be forced outdoors later if they want to take a nap instead. One system that matches the real world is to make kids do unpaid chores but NOT give them allowances; if they want money, they can do EXTRA chores any time they want. That way, THEY control how much income they have - and parents get a little rest.
lenona at July 10, 2017 8:45 AM
I stand by the pot hole guys Conan. The president of the fed can't unilaterally change rates. Even when rates are changed millions of other people change their behavior and often little real effect is made in most people's lives. The discount rate in recent years has gone from 7% to 0.5% to little real effect. Even in the financing of the pot hole guys, yes the city borrows money but at the same time those guys get a pension which is little difference from a loan. As a borrower and a lender of similar size the fed rate has little short term effect. As for the pothole guys, without driveable roads I can't even get to the stores no matter what their prices may be. Going from Texas to Louisianan is almost like offroading once you get off of the main highways.
Ben at July 10, 2017 10:31 AM
Most adults and children, I suspect, resent meaningless exercise, like a hamster in a wheel.
Yeah, I've never been able to do exercise for the sake of exercise. Health isn't even enough of a motivator for me. Martial arts and dance work for me though because I'm leveling up a skill. I'll happily supplement with some strength training on the side to be better at those skills, but couldn't do that for its own sake. My husband LOVES Going To The Gym every day and muscles are enough motivation for him. To each their own.
Also just spent a week at my parents' house (they have a lot of land) doing all kinds of labor. All that outdoor work restores my sanity better than anything else.
sofar at July 10, 2017 10:49 AM
In case your readers are not familiar with the tragic view of life:
It is not that life is tragic, it is that perfection can never be attained, that everything has a cost, that the state of civilization is hard-won, precarious, and valuable. It is easy to throw away civilization (look at the Nazis or what happened when Rome fell) and hard to get it back. This is why the antifa and G10 rioters are so scary: they would throw it all away without realizing that without the civilization that they hate we could descent into chaos and starvation and civil war--look at what has happened in Venezuela in just a few years. Manual work teaches this tragic view because it is so hard to make anything by hand. Painting your house is a lot of work. Those in intellectual jobs can easily imagine themselves in a perfect world.
cc at July 10, 2017 12:23 PM
Speaking of your third book Amy, Amazon is now offering it for pre orders.
lujlp at July 10, 2017 2:06 PM
Nice find lujlp!
Amy sure likes the F word.
Snoopy at July 10, 2017 5:38 PM
For me, I don't see any difference in feelings of accomplishment between physical and mental labor. Some tasks give me the feeling of accomplishment while others don't. Tidying up around the house is like doing multiplication tables -- busy work and I don't get any good feelings from either.
I really hate most physical work. I think it comes from my parents forcing me to do too much busy labor. My dad had a some nasty old 2/3 rotted wood that I moved just about every other summer. My mother had me cut the lawn way more than needed -- once I only cut half and she did not notice until I pointed it out.
The Former Banker at July 10, 2017 10:02 PM
@Suzanne
Don't these kids have papers or at least book reports or something like that they write on a computer?
I saw my Dad on the computer most every evening and I knew it was work, not play. And I sometimes had to do work on it too -- book reports, etc -- papers when I was older.
The Former Banker at July 10, 2017 10:06 PM
Leave a comment