Work or not work.

 

Work or not to work.

When we look at what humans have done on earth, it’s astonishing. Buildings, transportation, great inventions, and billions of humans everywhere. Look at virgin lands as we have here out of town and compare. The human animal who can’t fly, or even jump very high, can’t run fast, or eat food without long preparation, lives in large hives called Cities. People can use energy from outside of themselves to do work. When they fight each other, the damage they do is incredible. They always fight one group against another, probably for domination over each other.

Other life forms only have one goal: to stay alive. Humans are driven by an invisible force to change the planet from its natural state to something they imagine to be better for themselves. An ape will just sit on a rock while a human will make a chair. An eagle will fly as high as he can while a human will develop a supersonic flying vehicle or fly out to space. To do that, human needs the cooperation of many humans. Most humans don’t wish to fly to space, build cities or explore the depth of the oceans, so how will they get together to do that?

Here is a big problem. Some humans need to lead, and many humans must follow and provide work. Hence, there is a reason for conflict and war. Who will lead and towards what goal? The most capable humans know many ways to achieve goals and do not do it without some personal gratification. They can convince others to reach their goals, or try to force them to work. Each way is costly, but in different ways. Others cheat to get their way and scare those around them with their explosive tempers.

Much of humankind is under threat of death, by starvation, disease, violence, or many other reasons. Often, the only way they know how to live is no longer viable. They may flock to the borders of rich countries and do what they can to get in. They will do any work to survive, but their skill level is not needed. A step above them are the low-skilled workers already in rich places. Those in the lead exploit them and make them live slightly above slave status. Humans let other humans live only if they are useful to themselves.

Most people I know need to work to be happy. It’s not the money that they earn, it’s the satisfaction of doing something useful. I have one eighty-year-old friend who builds decks for minimal pay. A lot of older ladies knit and crochet to give the product away to anyone who needs it. My little grandson builds amazingly intricate structures out of Legos just to build better ones next time. Humans need work. Unfortunately, we don’t try to have people do the work that they are meant to do, but work for money. We could have specialists matching the right folks to suitable jobs available to them, but we don’t.

Our governments try hard to force people to do work that will produce high yields for some employers by denying workers basic human needs if they don’t. That is not the right or most productive way. As work is disappearing when we automate all work opportunities, we end up with many surplus people. The world can feed all living humans if we set ourselves the right goals and work to achieve them. The goal must not be to enrich a few on the work of the many as it is now. It must not be to build the capacity to kill and subjugate others, either. Attempts to use people for personal gains will get exposed and will not succeed. People may be uneducated but are not stupid.

The only goal that humans can set and truly achieve is to use the gifts bestowed upon us for the benefit of all of us. There will be cheating, laziness, and attempts to terrorize others. There will be selfish individuals who will try to steal the pay for honest work for their own gratification. Also, some humans will be lucky to just survive without contributing to the overall effort. “The poor will always be with you.” They are the test that we must pass on the way to grow into God’s likeness. We were created to face and pass tests. He is the God of all, not only the rich and powerful.

Humans are designed to be partially dependent on each other, especially at the beginning and end of life. A human is incomplete without empathy, which works for and against each individual. Nature forces us to be a part of a hive, not a superhero in an imaginary game. It takes a village to raise a child, and from a child, a village grows.

Most work hard, more or less, while some are injured and a few are lazy without a good reason. Fewer yet spend time and effort thinking, figuring out, and communicating the results. That is what we are doing here.

We don’t need to hunt others and make them work for less, but we need value for hard work. All of our riches produced by our work should benefit our kind, the animals, and the world that gives us life. There is never enough for those so insecure they need to hoard while others suffer.

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