Noam Chomsky: Controlling Your Own Work | [wage slavery]

Controlling Your Own Work -- Noam Chomsky    • Controlling Your Own Work -- Noam Chomsky   Noam Chomsky - Controlling Your Own Work    • Noam Chomsky - Controlling Your Own Work   okay I mean the principle as far as i can see goes right back to the enlightenment you know uh like if you go back to classical enlightenment thought I'm not talking about Adam Smith and you know Jefferson and those guys uh the uh sort of core idea is people have the right to control their own work you know okay that the that if a person here I'll quote some standard formula back in the 18th century you know leading heroes of the enlightenment is if a person works on a if a person does beautiful work under external command meaning for wages we may admire what he does but we despise what he is because not for a human being okay that goes all the way through classical liberal thought enlightenment thought i mean you know Alexis de Tocqueville says under wage labor the art advances the artisan declines now you find this going right into the working class movements in Lowell and Lawrence I think that's just natural I wouldn't try to convince anybody of it it seems to me if you think about it yeah why should you work on command I mean if you work on command you're some kind of slave no why not work because it's coming out of your needs and interests now I think people do know that you know I don't think that these enlightenment ideas are hard to grasp I think people know that if you work on under external control you may despise I admire what the person does but despise what he is because his labor you know the sort of central part of your life is being done at somebody else's orders and you're not controlling the way it's done or why it's done or how it's used or anything else well you can't have every individual controlling every single thing but that's why you have democratic structures because people control things together you know okay I don't know how to I wouldn't try to convince anybody this I because I frankly just don't believe that everyone doesn't know it I think maybe I'm sentimental but it seems to me if you sort of cut away waves of you know layers of distortion and delusion these things that were considered pretty obvious 200 years ago are still obvious