A FEW THOUGHTS

Maybe the dim past might be a signpost to the future

Recently I noticed an article somewhere or other that suggested that if our species is going to do anything at all about the threatened collapse of the global environment due to climate change among other factors then we must look at the way we actually live our lives.

It was the late great Science Fiction writer, Arthur C Clarke, I think, who suggested that as a species we are so clever with our building of robots that can do work for us that the time may come when we find ourselves uninventing work. He meant that if a mechanical workforce can achieve what human labour achieves, and with a great deal less sweat and blood and tears, then it makes sense to let it and enjoy the freedom to think, create and even play in ever more spare time.

Then I saw the suggestion that limiting the time people spend at work will so reduce the carbon footprint of our species that the worst impact of CO₂ emissions might be avoided. It makes sense. Workplaces have to be heated and transport is needed to take most workers to the factory or the office or even the school.

So I got to ask myself where work actually came from. Who invented it? Why is it necessary? And are we really being bone idle if we don’t do it?

Let’s go back to pre-history. I’m on quite safe ground here because the term pre-history really means before humans recorded what they were doing with their time, so there’s no actual evidence that might prove whether I’m right or wrong. But we’ve all heard of the archaeology found in caves that suggests that primitive man lived in them with his whole family. He had no office to go to when it came to work and in actual fact his only real task was to provide for his lovely wife and delightful sprogs. Some of that would have been DIY, constructing bits and pieces of what passed for essential furniture out of whatever chance had put in his way, slabs of stone, fallen trees, that sort of thing while his wife saw to the babies and maybe even the clothing requirements of the family. It wasn’t that he was a misogynist, enslaving his good lady in the kitchen, but that his tasks often involved him moving for short periods away from home. Hunting. Finding meat for hungry mouths. That sort of thing. And if she was pregnant (and I’ll bet she often was, child mortality being what it surely was) or breast-feeding a recent addition to the clan, it wouldn’t have been wise for her to go a-hunting in the wilds.

So he’s off a-hunting for meat, and that hunting may well have represented a week’s work because he earned his passage through life by providing a balanced diet for all the family and maybe grandma too, as well as the wherewithal for a decent winter wardrobe via the gift of animal skins.

We might have a romantic image of Mr Caveman out with his chums chasing a herd of wildebeest across the landscape in endless back-breaking pursuit, but would it have really been like that? And even if it was, how long would it have taken him to fell a beast of the wild and drag its carcase back home, that carcase most likely representing the best part of a week’s dietary requirements for himself, the missus and the kids. Maybe it was all done in a few short hours. I would imagine times would have to be very hard indeed or skills very limited if a trained and experienced hunter spent day after day in long and tedious pursuit of his prey.

So that’s where the concept of work began. And I’m not denying feminists the right to take part, leaving Mr Caveman at home to tend to the kids whilst she ventured into the wilds with her spear. That might have happened, a pre-historic new man wiping infant bottoms and cleaning up after his troupe of offspring, waiting for the meat to arrive. But probably not too often.

Now I don’t want to suggest we go back to hunting and living in caves in order to reduce our troublesome carbon footprint. Backwards is rarely the right direction to go. But maybe we’ll have to take a peek at the way we do things, demand more from our mechanical servants in factories and even on farms, perform an increasing number of tasks at home (computers are wonderful things and you don’t need an office to house them: why, I’m sitting on an armchair with my laptop on my knee and coffee at my elbow right now, bashing away with my famous two fingers.) I’m writing this rather than doing work for financial reward, but the idea’s the same. My personal carbon footprint today isn’t likely to be large, what with no transport involved, no heating, just me breathing and very occasionally nipping to the loo.

And with a little thought and a willingness to accept that maybe things shouldn’t carry on as they have been, we’ll prevent what just might be disaster and chaos just round the corner, and no need for a spear or sling.

Amen.

© Peter Rogerson 26.05.19