Why Work Matters

Employment is not just a material issue. It’s a psychological, emotional issue. An insightful essay that deals with data from Marienthal, a small Austrian village whose citizens, in the 1920s, overwhelmingly relied on a single textile factory for employment. Money quote:

Marienthal had previously been an active community with social clubs and political organizations. The paradox is that, after the factory closed and people had abundant leisure, these activities withered. Villagers could not seem to find the time and energy to do much of anything. In the two years after the factory closed, the average number of volumes loaned out by the town library dropped by half …

Time seemed to warp. Men stopped wearing watches, and wives complained that their husbands were chronically late for meals—even though they were not coming from anything. Outsiders observed that it took villagers longer and longer just to walk down the street. People slept for hours more each night than they ever had. They could not recall how they spent their days, and they whittled away far more time sitting at home or standing around in the street than doing any other activity.

A group of sociologists who had come to interview the townspeople as part of a study on the importance of work determined that what destroyed life in Marienthal was not the loss of wages, but the loss of ability to earn them. When the researchers left the village, their prognosis was grim: “As conditions deteriorate, forces may emerge in the community ushering in totally new events, such as revolt or migration. It is, however, also possible that the feeling of solidarity that binds the people of Marienthal together in the face of adversity will one day dissolve, leaving each individual to scramble after his own salvation.”

The lesson of Marienthal is clear. Work is not just a means to an end. Work has enormous intrinsic value.

Face of the Day

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A Red Panda is seen on show at China’s largest breeding Programme at Chengdu Research Base Of Giant Panda Breeding on September 19, 2007 in Chengdu, China. Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding is dedicated to the conservation of native Chinese endangered species including the giant panda and red panda at its 105 hectacre site. By Paul Gilham/Getty Images.

Where Tehran and Washington Agree

Peter Galbraith reviews the Iranian question:

Iran’s role in Iraq is pervasive, but also subtle. When Iraq drafted its permanent constitution in 2005, the American ambassador energetically engaged in all parts of the process. But behind the scenes, the Iranian ambassador intervened to block provisions that Tehran did not like. As it happened, both the Americans and the Iranians wanted to strengthen Iraq’s central government. While the Bush administration clung to the mirage of a single Iraqi people, Tehran worked to give its proxies, the pro-Iranian Iraqis it supported — by then established as the government of Iraq — as much power as possible. (Thanks to Kurdish obstinacy, neither the U.S. nor Iran succeeded in its goal, but even now both the US and Iran want to see the central government strengthened.)
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The United States cannot now undo President Bush’s strategic gift to Iran. But importantly, the most pro-Iranian Shiite political party is the one least hostile to the United States. In the battle now underway between the SIIC and Moqtada al-Sadr for control of southern Iraq and of the central government in Baghdad, the United States and Iran are on the same side. The U.S. has good reason to worry about Iran’s activities in Iraq. But contrary to the Bush administration’s allegations — supported by both General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker in their recent congressional testimony — Iran does not oppose Iraq’s new political order. In fact, Iran is the major beneficiary of the American-induced changes in Iraq since 2003.

Dissent Of The Day

A reader writes:

Is Bob Herbert predictable? Certainly. Is he a mediocre writer? He’s not a great writer, and probably the least gifted of those writing for NYT editorial page.  But when I saw your post on him I thought back immediately to those 46 blacks arrested by a vicious racist cop in Tulia, Texas back in 1999. It was soon clear that they had been framed and arrested because they were black.  Governor Bush and his administration did nothing about it. They languished for more than a year. Bob Herbert picked up their cause and did something with it.  Has David Brooks ever done something to expose and right an injustice like this?  Not that I can think of. So I put Herbert in the path of the righteous.  Sanctimonious, perhaps. But I wouldn’t want to live in a world that lacked his sort of sanctimonious writing.