Why the Protestant Work Ethic Is a Menace to Society

[cleanhippie]

Good riddance to a religious approach that preached salvation through constant hard labor.


October 24, 2012 | Two weeks ago Pew Research pinpointed an historic threshold: for the first time only 48% of Americans deemed themselves Protestant. Yes, the dominant majority since Puritan days has shrunk to minority status, alongside (one trusts) its perennial double: the White, Anglo-Saxon Protestant ruling class.

With the Protestant hegemony fading, let us project a similar demise for the simplistic, planet-threatening credo known as the "Protestant Ethic." That triumphant code consecrates hard work, prosperity and control over nature, complacently measuring progress by net profit and GNP numbers. Here's a conviction that unifies our two parties in love with the status quo, along with reactionaries and fundamentalists everywhere. For all proclaim the Divinity of Hard Work, that Hard Work Conquers All, even that Work is Salvation, as both sign and vehicle of "exceptionalism" and personal deliverance.

For the hard right, does not the magic of hard work resolve crime, poverty, racial inequality, family shortcomings, economic stagnation and phantom enemies far and wide? The solution to all hard knocks, these hard people say, is hard work, the anvil for human destiny -- and beyond. Gee, what happened to one-time, theoretical promises of greater leisure time?

Certainly Yanks celebrate that savvy American, Benjamin Franklin, who elevated thrift, industry, and tenacity; or as he put it, "Energy and persistence alter all things." But today's ideological folly distorts the context of birthright, namely background, gender, education, and family assets. Thus schoolchildren still endure injunctions to "keep your nose to the grindstone" (ouch), "there is no substitute for hard work" (Thomas Edison), and my favorite, "hard work never killed anyone" ("but why take the chance," quipped witty Edgar Bergen).

http://www.alternet.org/labor/why-protestant-work-ethic-menace-society

[Jackpine Radical]

1. The problem is that the "Protestant work ethic" isn't limited to Prods.

Jews and, in America, many Catholics (particularly of Irish descent) display pretty much the same psychological attributes as those Max Weber wrote about in the 19th Century.

[trotsky]

3. Jinx!

I should have typed faster.

[Firebirds01]

8. The actualy faith

doesnt matter. It was the culture behind it. Yes, the irish displayed the same work ethic but Weber would argue that while catholic, they are displaying the cultural values of protestant germany and england. It should be noted more as the anglo-saxon or germanic work ethic than protestant. Not that I necessarily buy into webers argument for several reasons but that is a two week lecture to explain it (which you are welcome to attend if you are ever in ohio).

[trotsky]

2. It may have started life as the "Protestant work ethic" but...

it's been fused into our society so deeply that many people truly believe that they are "lucky" to have a job and should basically work themselves to death out of gratitude.

Plenty of Catholics, Mormons (who don't consider themselves Protestant), and even non-believers swallow this crap unquestioningly too.

[Sherman A1]

4. Precisely

And that is a huge part of the issue.

[rrneck]

5. Introspection is hard eork too.

But we sub that out to religion. If we took a minute to stop and think about why we do what we do instead of shopping for it in the faith store, we would spend more energy making better people than landfill fodder.

[rug]

6. The Protestant work ethic had been a ruling class whip.

[dimbear]

7. Seeking an explanation for Europe's current malaise? Keep looking. n/t