The Myth of Redemptive Labour

The Myth of Redemptive Labour

The Working Class Confidence Trick

We’re taught from an early age that work is virtuous and ennobling. A puritan ethic extolling the moral value of working for a living has been deeply woven into our cultural fabric. We internalise the idea that through the sweat of our brows, we redeem ourselves and find meaning and self-worth.

But I’m going to let you in on a secret – this is a con game perpetrated by the capitalist ruling class. The notion of redemptive labour is a confidence trick, a way to get the working masses to willingly participate in their own exploitation.

The Capitalist Bourgeoisie’s Game

Think about it – who really benefits from this ethos of endless toil and self-sacrifice through work? It’s not the workers whose bodies and minds get ground down from incessant labour. No, it’s the patrician class of owners and investors who can sit back and watch the surplus value get extracted from the efforts of the working class.

By convincing everyone that work is intrinsically virtuous, the capitalist bourgeoisie naturalises what is essentially a system of wealth extraction. Workers are taught to equate their self-worth with their productivity in service of those who own the means of production. This psychological subjugation pacifies the masses and staves off working class consciousness.

The Mandated Indentured Servitude

The hard truth is that for most, work under capitalism is not a source of fulfilment or liberation, but rather a mandated form of indentured servitude. We sacrifice our finite time and energy not for our own benefit, but to generate profits that accumulate to a minority at the top. The redemptive labour myth tricks us into embracing this asymmetric relationship as noble and righteous. Sheesh.

Deprogramming Ourselves

So how about we start to deprogram ourselves from this ideological con. Work does not have inherent sanctity – it is a constructed system of exploitation designed to undermine our collective self-interest as workers. Until we can shake off these mental shackles, true emancipation will never be possible. UBI (Universal Basic Income) promises a way forward. And maybe that’s a reson why it’s so opposed by the exploting elites.