Recently, economist, social theorist, political philosopher, and author, Thomas Sowell penned and article entitled “Meaningful Work.” In it he lambasts what passes for education these days, mainly because it no longer seams to include basic common sense and the survival skills needed to cope in the world.
Sowell seems especially concerned about how the “intelligentsia’s” utter lack of realism and common sense endangers society as a whole due to their promulgated false and worthless ideas that have no place in the real world.
The educated elites’ refrain that what low-income young people needed was “meaningful work” is one of the things that Sowell is warning America about in his article.
It was painful, for example, to see an internationally renowned scholar say that what low-income young people needed was “meaningful work.” But this is a notion common among educated elites, regardless of how counterproductive its consequences may be for society at large, and for low-income youngsters especially.
What is “meaningful work”?
The underlying notion seems to be that it is work whose performance is satisfying or enjoyable in itself. But if that is the only kind of work that people should have to do, how is garbage to be collected, bed pans emptied in hospitals or jobs with life-threatening dangers to be performed?
And therein lies one of the biggest failings with (mis)educated elite – their patronizing arrogance. It’s their firmly held belief that low-income young people – really just a dog-whistle for young Black males – need to be provided with “meaningful” jobs in order for them to behave properly. And, of course, the jobs that they currently are qualified for aren’t “meaningful” because they don’t meet some criterion of the (mis)educated elite.
What the fucking Hell is “meaningful work” anyway?
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Tags: Education | Employment | Eudaimonia | Foolishness | Jobs | Liberals | Life | Meaning | Progressives | Society | Sowell
This entry was posted on Friday, June 1st, 2012 at 6:42 am and is filed under Society.
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