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| (f) The person is not an interchangeable part If the person has intrinsic worth, then the person is not an interchangeable part. The shift from extrinsic to intrinsic motivation implies not only a shift from other-control to self-control but a shift from being other-employed to being self-employed. There are some encouraging signs that we can swell the ranks of the self-employed, that the work of the world can be done without stretching and chopping all of us to fit the Procrustean bed of jobs. We have developed mechanical slaves to do mechanical jobs. Instead of being apprehensive about being replaced by a machine, we should be delighted. Machines, by definition, can only do mechanical things. Therefore, anyone who could be replaced by a machine should be replaced by a machine. The machine frees the person from mechanical tasks and thus sets the person free for human tasks. The most encouraging signs, however, are not so much technological innovations but changes in cultural attitudes. Serious discussion of guaranteed annual income and negative income tax implies a shift from the traditional view that there are those who work and those who are supported by their charity, to the view that everyone in an affluent society should have enough to lead a simple, dignified life and that malcontents who aspire to luxuries are free to work to acquire them. There is a growing counterculture of people who are content with a simple life and are not embarrassed about being 'unemployed' or about 'getting something for nothing'. They consider themselves as self-employed and consider self-actualization as a legitimate form of self-employment. They do not consider the traditional distinction between work and play very useful. One person's work is another person's play. One person can work at taking children to a fun fair whereas another person can play at solving quadratic equations. They prefer a distinction with respect to the subjective map rather than the objective world. The distinction between doing what you must do and what you want to do is such a subjective substitute for the objective distinction between work and play. Their criterion of success is the average number of hours a day they are doing what they want to do. If you are healthy what you want to do is to satisfy your organic biological, sociological, and psychological needs, to realize your full human potential, to self-actualize. |
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