Image from rloop.org
By Situation Theatre 18/3/2020
The distinction between essential and bullshit jobs has never been clearer.
American anthropologist and anarchist activist David Graeber is feeling pretty smug right now about his 2013 essay, On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs.
In it he writes:
In our society, there seems a general rule that, the more obviously one's work benefits other people, the less one is likely to be paid for it. Again, an objective measure is hard to find, but one easy way to get a sense is to ask: what would happen were this entire class of people to simply disappear? Say what you like about nurses, garbage collectors, or mechanics, it's obvious that were they to vanish in a puff of smoke, the results would be immediate and catastrophic. A world without teachers or dock-workers would soon be in trouble, and even one without science fiction writers or ska musicians would clearly be a lesser place. It's not entirely clear how humanity would suffer were all private equity CEOs, lobbyists, PR researchers, actuaries, telemarketers, bailiffs or legal consultants to similarly vanish. (Many suspect it might markedly improve.) Yet apart from a handful of well-touted exceptions (doctors), the rule holds surprisingly well.
If there’s one good thing that might come out of this crisis, it’s a clear-eyed understanding that while doctors, nurses, chemists, register operators, shelf-stackers, delivery drivers, cleaners, and garbage collectors are amongst the jobs with the most value, it’s the advertising, financial services, corporate law, and public relations industries which lack merit.
