"Somebody has to do the "skut work" - or so they say.
Cultures require for their continued existence “skut work”, necessary, but not always pleasant activities, that basic survival requires. Much of this “skut work” is mundane, tedious and sometimes dangerous. To get this work done, cultures create work environments for these necessary endeavors that pay enough (and sometimes very well) for the doer to survive, plus a certain amount of security that makes doing them viable to those who do them.
Most of the people who do this type of work often attach to these activities the concept of service and “doing good” that makes the activity acceptable and easier for them to obscure the truth - that the activity has little meaning for them other than providing the means of surviving.
I do not want to minimize the need for survival. It is necessary for our existence. But cultures also dramatically attach great moral value to these “skut work” activities because they are necessary. (Somebody has got to do them). However, it is not the work we admire, but the willingness of the individual who performs these daily chores conscientiously.
This becomes part of the trap that so many people are in. We attach moral value to getting these jobs done and this value provides some of the affirmation that people need to feel some sense of justification for doing what they do – and maybe to some extent a reason for their existence.
Some where in all of this is the “they”; the class of people who collectively, and often unconsciously, create the classes within each culture. Certainly money (controlling the system that creates wealth) helps determine who is in this group. But it is money combined with lineage that stands at the top of the pyramid. Through their collective history they determine the “ruling and servant” classes.
Within each culture, whether democratic or authoritarian, this last group eventually controls the means of obtaining and keeping power. This is not a conspiracy; this is the way power has evolved through the myriads of history, from the cave, to the tribe and into our current history.
We have passed from the primitive instinctive animal to a highly developed animal instinct that has been codified into a political system with its set of laws and moral imperatives. The servant class includes our politicians, our professional classes and all of us engaged in the “skut work” of our time
But make no mistake about it, regardless of the system, there is a ruling class and the rest of us are workers, the necessary servant class who will continue to be - until a machine replaces us.
See you on the beach!
Sister Veronica, commenting for the Pizzaonian Newsertainment Network, Diverti Mento, editor
We also recommend:"The Pizzaonian."
opd 316
"Skut work", can you give an example? garbage collectors, paperwork, paying bills, house cleaning, ?????
Posted by: Josette | 11/20/2009 at 09:21 AM