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Quotes from The Abolition of Work — Bob Black

born 1951 United States

← All quotes by Bob Black

21 quotes

What I really want to see is work turned into play.

The Abolition of Work (1985)

No one can say what would result from unleashing the creative power stultified by work. Anything can happen.

The Abolition of Work (1985)

Play is always voluntary. What might otherwise be play is work if it's forced. This is axiomatic.

The Abolition of Work (1985)

You may be wondering if I'm joking or serious. I'm joking and serious.

The Abolition of Work (1985)

Free time is mostly devoted to getting ready for work, going to work, returning from work, and recovering from work.

The Abolition of Work (1985)

And so it is, although it is nothing but a description of the modern workplace.

The Abolition of Work (1985)

Under a system of permanent revelry, we will witness the Golden Age of the dilettante which will put the Renaissance to shame. There won't be any more jobs, just things to do and people to do them.

The Abolition of Work (1985)

Work is production enforced by economic or political means, by the carrot or the stick.

The Abolition of Work (1985)

My minimum definition of work is forced labor, that is, compulsory production.

The Abolition of Work (1985)

In order to stop suffering, we have to stop working.

The Abolition of Work (1985)

Once you drain the vitality from people at work, they'll likely submit to hierarchy and expertise in everything. They're used to it.

The Abolition of Work (1985)

All industrial (and office) workers are employees and under the sort of surveillance which ensures servility.

The Abolition of Work (1985)

You find the same sort of hierarchy and discipline in an office or factory as you do in a prison or a monastery.

The Abolition of Work (1985)

The demeaning system of domination I've described rules over half the waking hours of a majority of women and the vast majority of men for decades, for most of their lifespans.

The Abolition of Work (1985)

Anybody who says these people are "free" is lying or stupid. You are what you do. If you do boring, stupid monotonous work, chances are you'll end up boring, stupid and monotonous.

The Abolition of Work (1985)

An optimal sexual encounter is the paradigm of productive play. The participants potentiate each other's pleasures, nobody keeps score, and everybody wins. The more you give, the more you get.

The Abolition of Work (1985)

Either way, dissent and disobedience are punished. Informers report regularly to the authorities.

The Abolition of Work (1985)

These experts who offer to do our thinking for us rarely share their conclusions about work, for all its saliency in the lives of all of us. Among themselves they quibble over the details.

The Abolition of Work (1985)

A worker is a part-time slave.

The Abolition of Work (1985)

To define it is to despise it.

The Abolition of Work (1985)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Bob Black (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.