What is Work? (notes)

It doesn't "work" anymore... has two interesting meanings... it is unemployed or it is broken.

On the dialectical spot this weekend at the Buddha Birthday celebrations of the temple I had to explain why I thought the view that working for a living was right wing and what came out was convincing at last...

All human activity is "work" - in that it requires effort. Breathing is work, talking, shopping, batheing all these are work.

Work becomes "labour" when it is done for money and this occurs when it is done in relation to "capital". Supporting a capital accumulation is what is called labour.

I used the example of the temple volunteering to show that this is only a type of working - and an unnatural one as well.

The "work" that the venerables do in services and teaching is not work because they follow a "tradition".

Tradition as documented by anthropologists is equivalent to Time in some cultures. In UK we start and end work accoring to Time. In other cultures it is tradition which determines what and when to work.

It is community that determines work not personal capital.