Date: Mon, 30 Jun 1997 01:31:26 -0700
From: Dave and Deb Scully <dscully-AT-chass.utoronto.ca>
Subject: Re: THE DIVISION OF LABOR


What you had written about the concept of "free time" struck me as the
other side of a piece by Roland Barthes on holidays - "The Writer on
Holiday" (*Mythologies*).
In Barthes, the emphasis had more to do with the subjection of the
writer "to the common status of contempotary labour", in order to
convince any observing classes that holidays are a ubiquitous and
necessary benefit, the obverse of the wage-work that must beyond all
question be attended to. The writer assumes the quality of a
quasi-ersatz rebel, by not keeping regular working hours, while adopting
trappings appropriate for a cultural icon. With the role cast, what is
acceptable as a critical thinker is effectively dictated to the public -
most hopefully, to those growing up who aspire to continue 
growing up in something like Procrustes' bed. Furthermore, with that
role, that identity, as a given, the activity of critical thinking is
circumscribed and confined to the select few; the remainer are left to
await whatever riches should fall from their pens (or, as it were, out
of their projectors and CRTs).
	It also reminded me of Adorno's observation in "The Stars down to
Earth", that horoscopes serve much the same function in the culture
industry, to convince readers that the given is necessary, that
bi-phasic thinking is the least that is expected of them in this society
(your boss will have it out with you in the morning but love is in the
air). But I guess my question is, who can actually get away from those
annoying little polarities that life here keeps throwing at you? It's a
wonderful thing when, like Adorno (or Barthes), an artist has a passion
for their vocation and is able to make it come off without too many
compromises. It's another thing when you venture out into professions
outside of the arts (which are more than precarious enough) and into the
immensity of the techne-dominated economic world we're in. 
	Do you think in advocating the position he's achieved in order to
actualize "his idea of freedom" Adorno is here suggesting anything like
an ideal, or is he just describing his own personal route to salvation
(broadly understood)? The arts, of course, can have a healing effect,
but it seems to me there's rather much more at stake, which I have no
knowledge of Adorno ever elaborating on - namely, coordinating and
reconciling people in some way in order to defuse a suicidal economy.
	This isn't to suggest that Adorno was on any kind of life-long holiday
himself, mind you.

kenneth.mackendrick wrote:
> ...
> Adorno notes that the very idea of free time belongs to a relationship
> of domination whereby labour becomes central and all else is
> regarded as trivial (hobbies, sun tanning, etc.).  in response he
> argues the need to push things toward a concept of "freedom proper"
> - which does not rely upon a fixed division of labour precisely
> because this division is essentially one of coersion and mass
> domination.
> 
> adorno also notes that this is one of the reasons why he treats
> everything he encounters with the same sort of seriousness (music,
> philosophy etc).  he also notes that his "paid labour" (as a writer
> and teacher) is congruent with his idea of freedom - which allows him,
> in some ways, to escape all of this.
> 
> ken