Amerika

The core of conservatism is created by an internal ideology that believes an understanding of cause-effect relationships allows us to predict outcomes and thus choose the best possible outcome.

Liberalism, on the other hand, is an external ideology, which means that it self-reinforces through social means. If other people approve of how something is perceived, liberals see this as good.

However, the problem with external ideologies is that they are not anchored to anything fixed and eternal, so they tend to experience mission creep and, like a crowd of teenagers, the ideologues egg each other on to get more extreme and outlandish.

Our egalitarian mania for example knows no bounds. Even if it were a functional plan, there would never be enough. The first person to find a new group who were not equal enough would take the role of secular Christ-like hero to the left.

As a result, the worst thing you can do in this society is step out of line and not be equal, unless you’re wealthy of course (because then, everyone is your friend because they want wealth and they justify it with “he worked hard for this”).

Consequently, equality becomes a double-edged sword. We are all free and equal to go to work; those who don’t go are selfish. Therefore, we all (man, woman and child if we can fit them) must go.

This creates an environment that is not focused on work product, but job presence. We all go for our eight to ten hours a day. We spend most of that time on administrative tasks and waiting.

Even high profile jobs, like doctor, architect and lawyer, are padded with time spent on this kind of silliness. There is a massive guilt barrier to showing up, working intensely for three hours, and then saying, “Well, that’s all the real work, so I’m outta here.”

People are terrified however of leaving this system behind. Jobs are guarantees of money. Even more, most people have no idea what to do with themselves unless given some guidance.

On this labor day, we should indulge ourselves a thought-experiment. If work was task-focused, and not presence-focused, would more empty hours force us to develop souls?