[MD] head, heart and hands

[Arlo Bensinger]

[Andre]
He said:' It means Must Work! That is our purpose 
in life'. What do you do with something like that as an 8-year old?

[Arlo]
I think we as a culture have (thinking about Marx 
here a bit) accepted an artificial distinction 
between "labor" and "art". Wait, someone else 
besides Marx said something like this... think 
his name was Bob or something. From that vantage, 
your father's advice is despairingly cynical. But 
from the other vantage (via Karl or Bob), it 
points to beauty of human life that is "craft" or "art".

In the cynical vantage, a man toils to assembly 
alien constructions he neither identifies with 
nor cares about, spending the vast majority of 
his life in misery so that he can "enjoy" a few 
fleeting moments of play For the cynic, this is 
simply the unfair and harsh reality of modern 
life. We are slaves. Don't rock the boat, just 
keep those oars moving and smile as the taskmaster whip slices your skin.

In the Marxo-Pirsigian world, this same man 
crafts each of his creations as an artist paints 
a landscape, he identifies with it and he cares 
about it. "Labor" or "work" from him is not some 
"means to an end" that he toils at while dreaming 
of doing something he enjoys, as his labor is a 
reflection, a part, an extension of his 
enjoyment. For this craftsman, "work" and "art" 
are inseparable, and the statement "must work" 
becomes "must craft" or even "must create" which he does with love and care.

My point is that the cynic has accepted that 
"work" is something to suffer, to endure, a harsh 
reality of a slave-like existence. Make no 
mistake, modern modes of production and labor 
have fostered this, modern metaphysical views 
have nurtured it, and authors taking long 
motorcycle trips wonder why the garages of their 
youth have morphed into the garages of the 
present. "Identity" is the first casualty. We are 
NOT our work, we believe. We are NOT our labor, 
we are told. And so we turn away from our hands 
and our craft and accept that who we are lies elsewhere.

"It is this identity that is the basis of 
craftsmanship in all the technical arts. And it 
is this identity that modern, dualistically 
conceived technology lacks. The creator of it 
feels no particular sense of identity with it. 
The owner of it feels no particular sense of 
identity with it. The user of it feels no 
particular sense of identity with it. Hence, by 
Phædrus' definition, it has no Quality." (ZMM)

Marx knew that our labor is our power. It is not 
something we "do", but an extension of who we 
"are". His concept of labor alienation is echoed 
by that Bob dude in his Zen book. "People arrive 
at a factory and perform a totally meaningless 
task from eight to five without question because 
the structure demands that it be that way. 
There's no villain, no "mean guy" who wants them 
to live meaningless lives, it's just that the 
structure, the system demands it and no one is 
willing to take on the formidable task of 
changing the structure just because it is meaningless." (ZMM)

I'm not sure if your father was a cynic or a 
Marxo-Pirsigian, but interpreting his words via 
the illuminating light of the latter thinkers 
makes his statement quite profound.