It is his celebration of leisure that typifies the mentality of the bourgeoisie in capitalist society and upper classes throughout history. In all fairness, Bellamy does not denigrate work as such. Compulsory labor service ends at age 45, after which the good life of cultivated ladies and gentlemen of leisure can begin. Thereafter, one is free to choose an occupation, subject to some government restrictions. Thus in Looking Backward everyone is obligated to join the army of workers at age 21, toiling at common-labor tasks during the first three work years. But if that is not possible, it should be gotten over with as early in life as possible so that more of one’s lifetime can be enjoyed in leisure. What is relevant for the present discussion is Bellamy’s treatment of work in his utopia, since he carries over to his dream of the future characteristic bourgeois attitudes to work and leisure. As West locates himself in the new world, the reader learns how the good society was supposed to have been reached and how it operates. The hero, Julian West, arises from a hypnotic sleep in the year 2000 to find himself in a United States where classes, exploitation, and money have disappeared, and where all enjoy the living standards of the well-to-do middle class of nineteenth-century Boston. Millions of copies of the book were sold, many readers were converted to socialist ways of thought, ∻ellamy Clubs sprung up across the land, and ideas introduced in the book contributed greatly to the program of the Populist Party.īellamy used a simple and by now familiar literary device to introduce his utopia. Not since Uncle Tom’s Cabin had so influential a novel appeared in this country. Such a scenario of a painless, peaceful transition and the design of a just social order captured the public’s imagination here and abroad. This would simplify the shift of ownership of all the means of production to the state, which would then apply the rules of reason to create a well-ordered, egalitarian society. Bellamy imagined that the trust-building of his time would eventually lead to the concentration of all capital into the hands of one giant corporation. This book appeared in 1888 in the midst of a period of rapid industrialization, growing concentration of economic power, and violent class struggle. Since I will be talking about work under socialism and communism as well as in history, what I am presenting here is a Marxist perspective, not the Marxist perspective.Ī very good illustration of how subjective views and class bias can influence one’s view of work in a socialist society is found in the once popular and influential utopian novel Looking Backward, by Edward Bellamy. The same cannot be said, however, about work in the future. Marxists may be expected to have few disagreements about the meaning of work in the past and present. At the opening session, during which this talk was given, a Christian perspective was presented by Monsignor George Higgins. This is a reconstruction from notes of a talk given at the Third North American ChristianMarxist Dialogue held in May 1982 at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C.
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