The Dualism Within The Working Man

It was mentioned in my Modern Philosophy class that the human person changed to some subtle degree when work and home became separated. The historical context in which I am speaking is of how Marx noticed this, when the Industrial Revolution was just beginning in his day. He was able to notice how it was shifting from say the farmer who lived, worked and slept all at his farm, which was also the place where he created his living.

The new distinction that was arising here from what Marx could see that man left to go to work and then come back home to where the laborer could relax to at least some degree. The dualistic quality in this type of society should be taken of note, since it has taken full effect now in the work place.

Many employees, if their jobs allow, get the weekends off, which they all hunger for. I’ve known at least personally a few individuals that work hard during the week, but once it’s nine o’clock on Fridays they let it all go and lose it until sobering Sunday. Of course this is just a generalization and one of my own concoction, but please take it as you like.

It has in essence separated the human person, since work has become something of an external work outside of ourselves, which doesn’t enter our personal lives at all. The in some sense has made our labor something we merely ‘do’, which for Marx was a dramatic change, since he saw labor as something of an expression of the interior of the individual. This is of course not how everyone thinks, but by the glazed look that most get when doing tasks at work, it can be seen how the passion behind work has gone out.

This may seem like scattered thoughts which I apologize for, but I am merely trying to just spill some thoughts from my class a couple days ago. And if nothing else, it’s something of a startling notion that Marx could see.

Maybe he was onto something…