The Work Ethic Part one

The term “Work Ethic” denotes both an intangible thing “The Work Ethic” and an attribute of a person or group “they have a strong work ethic”. The object of interest here is the intangible thing, a mindset that values work as intrinsically good, no matter what the work actually is, though some, perhaps most, proponents, would have reservations about the industriousness with which the Nazis (“Arbeit Macht Frei”) carried out the Holocaust, Stalin's supporters implemented the gulag, the Red Guards enforced the Cultural revolution and Pol Pot Regime carried out its mass killings.

The work ethic looked at here is often called the Protestant Work Ethic since it arose at the same time as the Protestant reformation, though the subsequent rise in Prosperity in Protestant countries relative to Catholic countries is probably not attributable to the Protestant Work Ethic.

For most of History, and probably Prehistory, work was regarded as a necessity, not a virtue. The Bible tells us work is a curse and Jesus told the Apostles to look at the lilies of the field which did no work but God still provided for them. The Greeks regarded manual labour as fit only for slaves, and mental labour as little better believing that the only fit pursuit of a free man was the trinity of Art, Philosophy and Politics. Today Philosophers are neglected, some artists are venerated and Politicians seem to believe they are part of the elite the rest of the world must labour to support. The Greeks believed that a person's prudence, morality and Wisdom were proportional to the amount of leisure time they had. The Romans similarly held work in low regard considering the only fit occupations for a free man were big business, politics and Agriculture. All this resembles contemporary cultural attitudes in the US and UK where the leaders of Big Business and to a lesser extent Politics are regarded almost as Gods, and the big landowners quietly go about there business while remaining richer than most members of the other groups. All of these groups regard the working person, whether working or middle class, with contempt.

But around the time of Martin Luther something changed, though the change seems to have started much earlier. Luther considered all forms of work as equally valid spiritually, believed people could serve God through their work, that the professions were useful, that work was the universal base of society and the cause of differing social classes, and that a person should work diligently in their own occupation and should not try to change from the profession to which he was born, while Calvin felt one had to select ones occupation for maximum profit but should not enjoy the results.

This change had a few positive aspects: it allowed for social mobility, for example but most of the consequences seem to have been negative. Where Jesus looked at the lilies the Protestants looked at ants. Where The Greeks regarded manual labour as fit only for slaves, White people in the 19^th Century told freed slaves that they would have to work far harder as freemen than they did as slaves. And paradoxically while the new attitude venerated work, Protestant Priests seem to have done no manual labour and, at least by comparison with their congregations, were men of leisure.

In the period between these two, in the West at least, work was still regarded as God's curse, though the fact that wealth gained from work represented independence of the charity of others and could be used to help others made work acceptable. Idleness was deprecated on the grounds Satan would find work for idle hands. Apparently God never found work for idle hands and no one ever considered that someone who was idle would probably be harming no one.

The ancients considered work as a necessity or a divine curse. Perhaps this relates to the universal myth of a golden age where life was easy and people were spiritually advanced. The Bible tells us work is God's curse on humanity for the sin Adam and Eve committed of seeking knowledge. The Greeks and Romans regarded labour as unfit for free men.

Somehow the idea arose, when Christianity became dominant, that it was sinful to seek work outside the field in which you were born, and this may have been a deliberately contrived tool of social control. However work became acceptable as allowing the worker to be independent of charity, and to be able to help others. There was a slow change that became evident around the time of the reformation when work became a way of serving God. Things seem to have gone downhill after that.