America

I have never really thought of work in a strictly philosophical light. Neither have I associated the philosophy of work with being an American. I suppose I am no different from my neighbor or my colleague. I go to work because it is part of life. It is necessary. Without working, I would not be able to live the life that I have now.

Yet those thoughts in themselves are already the start of some philosophical analysis. Why do Americans work? Why is work so much part of our lives? These things – and more – were brought to my attention when I ran across Jason J. Campbell’s article titled Americana and the Philosophy of Work. In it, he highlights how the “American culture is intrinsically tied to labor.” He states:

We are a culture of laborers and Americana habituates its citizens to the necessity of work. We are a culture of workers and therefore any attempt to understand Americana must be met by an equal attempt to understand how Americans work.

Generally stated, a philosophy of work is an attempt to locate the essential conditions wherein work is meaningful. In discussing how a culture goes to work and how their effort to work is meaningful, one must take note of the concept.

In discussing Americana, the vast majority of the population has to work because of an acute sense of economic necessity, that is, they work because they have to. Generally speaking, only the very wealthy or those who have retired have the “luxury” of working for its sheer satisfaction.

True enough. I myself believe that I am part of the former group described in the preceding paragraph. Why do you work?

There have been many wars that the US has engaged in during the short span since the second world war. Vietnam, the liberation of Kuwait, invasion of Iraq and many more. Many of their enemies such as these terrorists whom they blame for the crashing of planes and subsequent demise of the twin towers, the World Trade Center (which was already targeted once from which they same was done by the same people so you would think they would have learned) and the deaths of many. These terrorists have capitalized on one thing that has led to many defeats such as the Black Hawk Down Incident in Somalia when they conducted a so-called flash raid to capture several key rebel leaders which ended in one of their most humiliating defeats since Vietnam, the leave no man behind policy.

This may have to do more of the moral implications and the opinions of their constituents when their fallen are left in the battlefield to be humiliated again and again by the enemy (and very much publicized by the ever present media who go where no media people have gone before capitalizing on the desecration and humiliation of dead people who should have otherwise been left alone out of respect and should be seen only by authorities and not the general public due to their graphic nature) Media has become an ever present entity on the battlefield which has given us front row seats in the bombing of the Iraqi capital in the “Shock and Awe Campaign” (which also showed the first images of the smart-bombs or should we call them not-so-smart bombs that hit some unwanted targets causing some collateral damage(which could also have been the result of the Iraqi army lobbing shells at their own people making it look as if the smart-bombs missed). The morality being missed as they clamor to be the first to get there and break the news, in their never ending quest to bring the news(good or bad) straight to your TV as you are sitting down to eat dinner after a long hard day’s work The Military have had a policy of getting all their personnel out dead or alive as soon as possible to avoid a turning of tides at home where families can start complaining to the government that their son’s and daughter’s who went to war were not returned to them for a formal and decent burial which can have disastrous effects on their morale and the government’s political opponents agenda to use against it.

The Philosophy Of Work In Americana

The American War Philosophy