Henry at Work

April 3, 2023
In this astute study, Kaag (Sick Souls, Healthy Minds), an ethics professor at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, and van Belle (Zenithism), a former editor at Outlier.org, explore what lessons Henry David Thoreau’s life and writings hold for 21st century workers. Suggesting that Thoreau’s opposition to the “alienation and nihilism” caused by capitalism defined his attitudes toward work, Kaag and van Belle explore how readers might push back against “meaningless work” by following his example. The authors examine Thoreau’s takes on the commodification of time, the dehumanizing effects of repetitive labor, and employers’ inability to provide spiritual fulfillment for their workers, and draw lessons for modern workers from Thoreau’s life. Telling how Thoreau quit a teaching position after his boss insisted he use corporal punishment to discipline students, Kaag and van Belle contend that resignation offers laborers the opportunity to claim moral agency from employers. The speculation on what Thoreau would think about modern workplaces is plausible and well supported (Thoreau would object to automated technology because of its inability to exercise “moral autonomy”), making a strong case for the transcendentalist’s continued relevance. This should give workaholics pause.

April 1, 2023
Two philosophers turn to Henry David Thoreau for help in understanding the nature and purpose of work. To witness a society obsess over efficiency, productivity, and profitability as ours does would have distressed Thoreau, if not surprised him. After all, he recognized the seduction of rapid communication long before the age of social media: "We are in great haste to construct a magnetic telegraph from Maine to Texas; but Maine and Texas, it may be, have nothing important to communicate....As if the main object were to talk fast and not to talk sensibly." Kaag and van Belle want to showcase a Thoreau who is not the out-of-touch stubborn recluse of lore but rather a philosopher with his feet on the ground, someone who has relevant advice for our daily lives, including how we spend a majority of our waking hours: at work. The authors speculate that, following the most recent recession, the "Great Resignation" might be an indication that in the aftermath of the pandemic, Americans are finally ready to take after Thoreau's example of living deliberately. Even if the current disinclination to punch the clock is less idealistic than that, we might still benefit from hearing from Thoreau in light of high inflation rates. The first chapter of Walden, after all, is "Economy," and Thoreau shows us how to do more with less. Kaag and van Belle range widely over a variety of relevant topics, including meaningful versus meaningless work, annoying co-workers, and the threat of AI to human workers. Readers of Kaag's philosophical memoirs will recognize a similar clarity and command of language here even as the personal takes a back seat to the sociological as well as the philosophical. This is philosophy as Thoreau would have recognized it: full of life. An inspiring book that will give you the succor you need to reconsider--and possibly change--the way you work.

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