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Antiwork

Opposition to the land of Work (the World of the Profane) from a Bataillean perspective.

The criticisms levied against work and a profane world built around it in this subreddit are not invalid, but I think it is too experience based. If that makes sense. Not to say that that is a bad thing, but I think a theoretical backdrop, if not a metaphysical one (if that isn't a misuse of the term). One fairly unknown philosopher who discusses this and whose arguments could be construed to be one that opposes the land of work (which he names, the world of the profane), is Georges Bataille. What I want to do in this post is lay out some of the views he has regarding work and to see how it can relate to the anti-work movement. Now it is worth considering that Bataille, probably, didn't use Work in the Marxist sense. So as a term that included labour, as opposed to specifically wage labour or…


The criticisms levied against work and a profane world built around it in this subreddit are not invalid, but I think it is too experience based. If that makes sense. Not to say that that is a bad thing, but I think a theoretical backdrop, if not a metaphysical one (if that isn't a misuse of the term).

One fairly unknown philosopher who discusses this and whose arguments could be construed to be one that opposes the land of work (which he names, the world of the profane), is Georges Bataille.

What I want to do in this post is lay out some of the views he has regarding work and to see how it can relate to the anti-work movement.

Now it is worth considering that Bataille, probably, didn't use Work in the Marxist sense. So as a term that included labour, as opposed to specifically wage labour or the labour of a serf or slave.

So this mainly takes from his writings in the first few chapters of Eroticism. I have no doubts that he likely talked of this in his other works, like The Accursed Share, but oh well.

To Bataille, the world of work is one that is defined by taboos. In order for a world of work to function, people would have to avoid giving into their primal violent desires and excess for some immediate reward, in exchange for another reward later down the line. The main function of all taboos is to combat violence!

In the domain of our life excess manifests itself in so far as violence wins over reason. Work demands the sort of conduct where effort is in a constant ratio with productive efficiency. It demands rational behaviour where the wild impulses worked out on feast days and usually in games are frowned upon. If we were unable to repress these impulses we should not be able to work, but work introduces the very reason for repressing them.

So strong is the influence of the world of the Profane, It is certainly in the realm of possibility that even a fear of death itself can be attributed to work and the world of the Profane (or at least, the way we approach death now). Why?

Primitive man may have thought that the ordering of work belonged to him, while the disorder of death was beyond him, making nonsense of his efforts. The movement of work, the operations of reason were of use to him, while disorder, the movement of violence, brought ruin on the very creature whom useful works serve. Man, identifying himself with work which reduced everything to order, thus cut himself off from violence which tended in the opposite direction.

To Bataille, Violence implies not just regular violence, but sexual experience and death. Most importantly, it is a metaphorical type of violence against the Profane World.

The picture of violence which we must attribute to primitive man in particular must necessarily be understood as opposed to the rhythm of work regulated by rational factors.

It is because of this he contrasts the Profane World with the world of Violence. It is important to note here that Bataille is not condemming the world of violence. To him, that is what is worth praising. But again, not entirely the traditional conception of Violence.

Hypothetically, a Bataillean *could* make the argument that the existence of the world of the Profane heightens the experiences gained within the religious World of Violence. But I don't think this is the view that Bataille is trying to take up here.

So to Bataille, The World of Work is reinforced by maintaining taboos. Taboos such as “no sex outside of marriage!” or “no sex outside of that between a man and a woman”. The main function of Taboos is to combat violence against the world of Work. (Again, to Bataille, that is not necessarily a good thing). The Taboo relating to reproduction exists only in humans. While animals have sexual freedom.

As opposed to work, sexual activity is therefore a form of violence since it exists as a spontaneous impulse, it disrupts the Profane world and damages Work. We could maybe even argue that this is where opposition to homosexuality comes from, at least its first origins.

A man and a man cannot reproduce. If they cannot have a child, the World of the Profane sees their value as limited, as they cannot produce offspring that will be sent into the machine of work. But this is beyond Bataille's critique(or maybe not, I haven't finished the book yet, so perhaps he discusses this).

I get that this is a bit of disjointed post, but in the throes of a fever and late-night giddyness, I thought sparking a discussion about more unique and less well known approaches to anti-work could be something interesting. If there are any Batailleans reading this, please do let me know if I completely misunderstood him and do not refrain from tearing this post apart!!

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