Mandy Brown brings her thoughtful analysis to the work of philosopher André Gorz, who wrote frequently in the post-World War II world about his self-described leftist approaches to politics, and in this case, to work. Brown contextualizes that in the modern day.
But what Gorz is calling out here is that isn’t only bad work that the elite work depends on—it’s also the absence of work. The “disruption” that the tech industry has so long prided itself on is just another word for “unemployment.”
The tech industry is on a journey to do as little as possible and make as much money as possible from doing it. That’s the game. That’s all that is. And the way that work has been restructured pushes the responsibility, and importantly the ethics of that, back to the worker.
But Brown imagines a future that is more free of these limitations. And ultimately makes it possible to imagine a better future. Which is really what it’s all about.
What if work wasn’t only what we do at work, but all the ways that work moves out into the world, and all the work we do elsewhere—whether in our homes or in our streets. What if our work is all the things we give a fuck about? What becomes possible then?