Lack of daily manual labor weakens people?

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Ah the Philosophy of Labor! My premise is, manual labor can make a person stronger and by manual labor I mean creating something with the hands rather than a machine. It can be anything and based on the person's capabilities, so a really strong, robust man would be capable of more intense manual labor then, let's say, a smaller framed, less healthy individual but the weaker one can still do some kind of manual labor.


People rely so much on machines, it is robbing them of precious opportunities to enhance their minds and spend some of that pent up energy that often just turns to fat and mush, wrecking havoc on the body.

I have discovered that since I took up a hobby requiring a lot of intensive, manual labor it has helped steady my mind and consume excess energy and resolves nervous tension and strain.

You're confusing "manual labor" with "excercise". This comes across as a right wing soundbite to legitimise the institution of scientific management.

If a lack of manual labo(u)r was the cause of weakness then by rights, the richest ought to be the weakest out there. We know thats nonsense because the rich are able to partake in wholesome excercise and outdoormanship at the drop of a hat. What i would say is a lack of intellectual stimulation weakens peoples minds, and this is one aspect that engenders the co-ercive nature of manual labor in its contemporary manifest.

I think manual labor that is freely chosen can be superior to non-labor exercise (working out or sports). Something that freely chosen manual labor can give you- beyond exercise- is a chance to free your mind with an outside-directed goal and creation. This explains oOAnaOo's positive experience with an active hobby. Doing physically demanding work of creating something with your hands gives you both exercise and a way to free your mind and the thing you created. That it is freely chosen makes all the difference. A prison chain gang doing outdoor work (we have those in the U.S.!) are getting exercise but somebody doing outdoor work for their own personal benefit gets exercise and so much more. Hard work can be a grind if you do it for somebody else. If you do it for yourself, it is freeing.

Anyway oOAnaOo, I agree. Working in my garden is the best! I could rent machinery that would do the same work faster but I like it this way.

Nah, what I am doing isn't exercise, it's productivity. I am not a hamster in a spinning wheel. I am getting tangible results not just scurrying away energy.

And as far as rich people are concerned, money does not always buy longevity. And how do you know rich people don't partake in manual labor?

The average person is the one who is most deprived. He spends all his time directing others, talking on the phone, entering data into computers, watching television all weekend and you see the results, so much discontent and maladies then they run to the doctor and get pills.

Few people realize running and jogging can actually hurt your health, along with strenuous exercising in general because it stresses your body and is tough on your joints. It isn't always such a good idea.

Middle management are the ones who should get in touch with manual labor. They need to reconnect to such accomplishments, the time and effort required to bring such things to fruition. You can't just talk it into existence via telephone.

The New York Times says so too.....

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/24/magazine/24labor-t.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0



The article agrees with and expands upon what you wrote.

Lets examine the elephant in the room here. Rich people aren't co-erced into manual labour in the same context that poor people are. They have the choice to employ someone else to do it for them while they go for a run or to the gym. Poor people who are subjected to manual labour have any other choices severed of relevance; it becomes a matter of survival. While on the job they are subjected to quotas and targets for fear of being made redundant which brings with it workplace related stress. This might be a good formula for productivity or profitability, but its sheer sanctimony to argue its good for body or spirit.

In this day and age of the vanishing white collar, 'average' is increasingly referring to menial workers.


No. Middle management, like the bottom rung workers are just part of the infrastructure. They are puppets, not the ones pulling the strings.

They have to roll with the punches too, albeit from a higher source. Often you cant blame them for being the way they are. Just like lower workers, they are fearful for their jobs.

You have missed oOAnaOo's point entirely. Instead of trying to shoehorn this into a political context, take the term 'manual labor' literally. Manual labor is work done by hand. There can be a political context when people use that term, but here she is talking entirely about the benefits of doing work (not merely exercise) by hand. Gardening, fixing things, building etc. All these can be a horrible burden if they are a low paying job you have to take to survive or they can be something freely chosen.

Just because farm workers are poorly paid and have aching backs from long days does not therefore mean there is no benefit to working your own farm. There are many white collar workers who choose manual labor and leave the office behind (such as in the New York Times article I linked). You could (correctly) point out that it is a facet of privilege to be able to ditch office life and take up manual labor as a choice. But that would still be missing the point.

And it could be a reason why middle management and higher are not in tune with workers. They are so comfy in their worlds of automation, they either forgot, or in some cases, never had experience with, creating something by hand from the ground up, or the painstaking task of toiling the ground and planting, both of which I have done. It gives an appreciation for the ones who must do it for a living. Most people are thankful to be away from it all by the time they reach middle management but it might be better to stay in the game and more connected to people who are doing the most work. It could be very therapeutic for the soul to continuously create, not just rely on the easiest way, but doing as much by hand as possible. Your mind gets a better grasp of reality, you burn more calories, your brain gets a work out jumping through various hoops and you get a reward when it's all said and done. A win/win situation.

I would like the experience of harvesting my own fiber and spinning it into threads only I don't have a spinning wheel. I still rely on automation to provide my supplies but I would feel even better about what I do if I could accomplish all of it, except for actually growing the cotton. If I really wanted to get picky, I would just harvest the hair on my head and create thread from that. This way I can create my clothing all from myself. It sounds strange but it is exceptionally resourceful when you think about it.

It's connecting to the human spirit that so many have felt through the ages, even thousands of years ago when they first began doing various tasks by hand, beyond the traditional hunting and gathering.