Is working a normal job unnatural?

Mighty_Girl · November 2, 2016, 8:38pm

As someone who lives in an actual tropical island, I can assure you that hunting and gathering would still be damn hard work. Sure, easier than some frozen tundra, but still damn hard.

DrDeth · November 2, 2016, 8:59pm

Ohh, cool. Tell us more.

But apparently life in say Tahiti was pretty idyllic.

sara20 · November 2, 2016, 11:17pm

Dangerosa:

I don’t know too much about farming 1000 years ago, but my grandparents and great grandparents farmed were farmers until the mid 1950s.

Even though they were primarily wheat farmers, they also kept chickens and a cow or two and geese, pigs and goats - for the family. So even in the middle of winter, in a blizzard, those animals needed to be cared for. They also needed to be butchered and processed. The family garden was three acres - beans, cabbage, beets, peas, herbs, squash. Not including the raspberry and strawberry patches. Gardens are in continual weeding, thinning, processing, planting, harvesting - and then canning.

My grandfather was an excellent mechanic - you had to be. You had to take care of the tractor yourself. And the truck. You also had to be a good builder. Barns, chicken coops and houses all need constant maintenance. Fences need mending.

As an early 20th century farmer, you worked every single day. Maybe there were months (January) where you only had three hours of work in the day - feeding animals and general maintenance.

I don’t mean to offend any farmers reading this, but I live in the country around many farms, have a food garden myself, have farmer friends, and my grandmother and father grew up on a farm and told me lots of stories about it. From what I gather many farmers in the past had animals to help feed themselves but it was not a 8 hour job to feed and care for them. The farmers I know do perform “busy work” to keep themselves occupied but work at their own pace and I would not say it is extremely hard work. They do work very hard twice a year like I said.

As for what’s unnatural you could go back to hunter gatherer, but my point was more if it is unnaturally harmful, physically, emotionally or spiritually. Computers are unnatural, but so is working a night shift, which has been shown to be harmful to ones health long term. That is more what I meant.

Alessan · November 2, 2016, 11:28pm

Historically, the problem with idyllic tropical islands was population control. If there’s plenty of food for anyone, nice weather and few diseases, unless you have some active measures in place (celibacy customs, warfare, infanticide), sooner or later the population grows too big for the island to support, and then things get real ugly, real fast.

Dangerosa · November 2, 2016, 11:34pm

sara20:

I don’t mean to offend any farmers reading this, but I live in the country around many farms, have a food garden myself, have farmer friends, and my grandmother and father grew up on a farm and told me lots of stories about it. From what I gather many farmers in the past had animals to help feed themselves but it was not a 8 hour job to feed and care for them. The farmers I know do perform “busy work” to keep themselves occupied but work at their own pace and I would not say it is extremely hard work. They do work very hard twice a year like I said.

As for what’s unnatural you could go back to hunter gatherer, but my point was more if it is unnaturally harmful, physically, emotionally or spiritually. Computers are unnatural, but so is working a night shift, which has been shown to be harmful to ones health long term. That is more what I meant.

You got different stories than I did. I got stories of a farm that managed to keep twelve children hopping in all but the coldest months, when the boys got a break (and had to fit school in), but the girls spent a lot of time sewing and knitting (and had to fit school in)- if there was sufficient light (the house didn’t get power until after WWII).

And no, it wasn’t an eight hour job to milk two cows and three goats, get the eggs, feed the chickens and pigs. Which is why the boys got a break in the coldest months.

Jackmannii · November 3, 2016, 3:24am

It’d be hard work just filling in that hole you keep digging deeper for yourself.

Here’s information on how you can land a couple of nice gigs every year in a lovely mild climate.

Dangerosa · November 3, 2016, 1:32pm

To get to your point, is modern worklife harmful?

It was for me…but farming wouldn’t be better for me. I suffer from anxiety and depression. Fortunately, my husband thrives off high stress “knowledgework.” So now I run his businesses a few hours a week from home, doing some accounting and human resources type stuff.

Some people need to see what they make. For those people, if they end up in a cubical career facing an endless stack of invoices to process, taking up a crafty hobby might provide some release. I know a lot of people who knit or woodwork or paint. Others do music - which is more of a temporary creation - but puts beauty into their life that TPS Reports just don’t do. Some cubical dwellers spend their weekends hiking or hunting or boating - they crave the contact with nature.

And some move from their work computer to MMORGs - they don’t need the same things. And some work 16 hour days - not because they are slaves to the corporation, but because that is where they find fulfillment.

Some people - where ever you are in History - get to do something they love and make a living at it (or, if they are really lucky, they don’t need to make a living). Most people have duties, if you are a farmer and its time to harvest and you don’t feel like it - guess what, you still have sixteen hour days in front of you for the next week or two. Women, in particular, have had a lot of work in their lives - caring for children and feeding people are women’s jobs through most cultures - and those things happen every day and are time consuming.

To a large extent, human beings throughout History are responsible for figuring out what they need to be healthy - spiritually, emotionally, physically - and then do their best to work that in. It isn’t always possible - working sixteen hour days in a tenement sweatshop in 1902 or picking cotton in 1853 doesn’t leave a lot of room - but that may be one reason religion has been so important throughout History - it gives you a reason for stopping work and taking some “me time.”