“Under a system of permanent revelry, we will witness the Golden Age of the dilettante which will put the Renaissance to shame. There won't be any more jobs, just things to do and people to do them.”

— Bob Black , book The Abolition of Work

The Abolition of Work (1985)
Context: What I really want to see is work turned into play. A first step is to discard the notions of a "job" and an "occupation." Even activities that already have some ludic content lose most of it by being reduced to jobs which certain people, and only those people, are forced to do to the exclusion of all else. Is it not odd that farm workers toil painfully in the fields while their airconditioned masters go home every weekend and putter about in their gardens? Under a system of permanent revelry, we will witness the Golden Age of the dilettante which will put the Renaissance to shame. There won't be any more jobs, just things to do and people to do them.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Under a system of permanent revelry, we will witness the Golden Age of the dilettante which will put the Renaissance to…" by Bob Black?

Bob Black photo

Bob Black 63

American anarchist 1951

Related quotes

“My body is a temple not just any boy gets to worship at. I won't do any more than I want to do.”

Jenny Han book P.S. I Still Love You

Source: P.S. I Still Love You

“The things that people do cannot under any conditions be more important than the world. And thus a warrior treats the world as an endless mystery and what people do as an endless folly.”

Carlos Castaneda book The Wheel of Time

Source: The Wheel of Time: Shamans of Ancient Mexico, Their Thoughts About Life, Death and the Universe], (1998), Quotations from A Separate Reality (Chapter 6)

“The supporters of tariffs treat it as self-evident that the creation of jobs is a desirable end, in and of itself, regardless of what the persons employed do. That is clearly wrong. If all we want are jobs, we can create any number—for example, have people dig holes and then fill them up again, or perform other useless tasks. Work is sometimes its own reward. Mostly, however, it is the price we pay to get the things we want. Our real objective is not just jobs but productive jobs—jobs that will mean more goods and services to consume.”

Milton Friedman book Free to Choose

Source: Free to Choose (1980), Ch. 2 “The Tyranny of Controls”, pp. 40-41

“We do have to do more infrastructure spending. That will put many Americans to work. It’s a good job that gets you on the ladder to the middle class. We need to improve the conditions for manufacturing in our country and punish those companies that want to export jobs. We need them to be incentivized to create jobs right here in America.”

Hillary Clinton (1947) American politician, senator, Secretary of State, First Lady

Presidential campaign (April 12, 2015 – 2016), Democratic Presidential Debate in Miami (March 9, 2016)

“If you want people to do a good job, give them a good job to do — an enriched job.”

Frederick Herzberg (1923–2000) American psychologist

Frederick Herzberg in: Randall B. Dunham (1984), Organizational Behavior: People and Processes in Management. p. 118

“To keep the Golden Rule we must put ourselves in other people's places, but to do that consists in and depends upon picturing ourselves in their places.”

Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878–1969) American pastor

As quoted in Don't Try to Live Your Life in One Day! (2008) by Johnny Ong, p. 171

“Clearly doing good puts doing bad to shame.”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

XXII. 374 (tr. Robert Fagles).
Odyssey (c. 725 BC)

“Every generation has its defining works. More than 300,000 people worked to put a man on the moon – including that janitor. Millions of volunteers immunized children around the world against polio. Millions of more people built the Hoover dam and other great projects. These projects didn’t just provide purpose for the people doing those jobs, they gave our whole country a sense of pride that we could do great things.”

Mark Zuckerberg (1984) American internet entrepreneur

Harvard Graduation Speech (2017)

“I won't be wronged. I won't be insulted. I won't be laid a-hand on. I don't do these things to other people, and I require the same from them.”

John Wayne (1907–1979) American film actor

“The unions might be good for the people who are in the unions but it doesn't do a thing for the people who are unemployed. Because the union keeps down the number of jobs, it doesn't do a thing for them.”

Milton Friedman (1912–2006) American economist, statistician, and writer

Interview with Brian Lamb, In Depth Book TV (2000)

Related topics