Home » Opinion » Book review
Modern capitalism seeks ideal of soulless workers
By Wan Lixin |
April 17, 2010, Saturday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
SINCE late January six employees of Shenzhen-based Foxconn Technology Group have "fallen" from buildings in six separate cases; four died and two were seriously injured.
The company in question is a unit of Taiwan electronics giant Hon Hai, and had been haunted by such accidents for some time.
A recent investigation from the local trade union urged the company to "show care and consideration" to its employees.
According to reports, all the victims are people in their 20s, who "face stress at work and life, and lack experience to adjust to society and deal with their emotional problems."
What kind of adjustments is expected of these youths?
Richard Sennett's "The Culture of the New Capitalism" may help surviving Foxconn employees gain insight into the dictates of modern capitalism.
According to the book, contemporary capitalist organizations call for employees who can work with temporary connections, and detach themselves from the past.
"The fragmenting of big institutions has left many people's lives in a fragmented state: the places they work more resembling train stations than villages," Sennett observes.
Such enterprises emphasize talent and potential, not skill, achievement or experience.
In other words, the ideal employee today should be someone who functions competently well in the standardized role of production and consumption, without being encumbered with traits that might interfere with these functions.
It reminds me of Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World," which is dominated by mass production, homogeneity, predictability, and consumption of disposable consumer goods.
From birth, members of every class are indoctrinated in certain beliefs while they sleep, and any residual unhappiness is resolved by an antidepressant.
Human embryos and fetuses are conditioned with carefully designed stimuli to yield the kinds of human beings best suited for a specific purpose.
As only a very limited portion of human function is exploited in today's mass production, deep knowledge of a craft, pursuit of perfection, and strong and enduring relationships are all liabilities.
In traditional Chinese societies, one person is often intended for one type of profession for life.
From his profession, he can derive spiritual as well material satisfaction, and qualities like loyalty and dedication are esteemed even above craftsmanship.
Loyalty and dedication is within reach of anybody. But for capitalists all that matters is ability.
"The untalented become invisible, they simply drop from view in institutions covertly judging ability rather than achievement," the book observes.
Their invisibility and marginality marks America's greatest social taboo: failure.
Only traits that can be productively exploited can be noted at all.
In my mind, my son is evocative of seven years of innocent laughs, his lisp, the clumsy way he walks, the toy goat and bear he clasps while asleep, and his observation yesterday morning that he prefers summer all year round, because he can have ice cream every day.
In schools, unless he No. 1 or No. 2, he is a failure, and expendable.
Although the Foxconn victims who chose to take their own life were all very young, according to Sennett, the New Capitalism favors young and inexperienced workers, for they by definition cannot assess corporate directives in light of their own experience.
"Since people can anchor themselves in life only by trying to do something well for its own sake, the triumph of superficiality at work, in schools, and in politics seems to me fragile," the book concludes.
The company in question is a unit of Taiwan electronics giant Hon Hai, and had been haunted by such accidents for some time.
A recent investigation from the local trade union urged the company to "show care and consideration" to its employees.
According to reports, all the victims are people in their 20s, who "face stress at work and life, and lack experience to adjust to society and deal with their emotional problems."
What kind of adjustments is expected of these youths?
Richard Sennett's "The Culture of the New Capitalism" may help surviving Foxconn employees gain insight into the dictates of modern capitalism.
According to the book, contemporary capitalist organizations call for employees who can work with temporary connections, and detach themselves from the past.
"The fragmenting of big institutions has left many people's lives in a fragmented state: the places they work more resembling train stations than villages," Sennett observes.
Such enterprises emphasize talent and potential, not skill, achievement or experience.
In other words, the ideal employee today should be someone who functions competently well in the standardized role of production and consumption, without being encumbered with traits that might interfere with these functions.
It reminds me of Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World," which is dominated by mass production, homogeneity, predictability, and consumption of disposable consumer goods.
From birth, members of every class are indoctrinated in certain beliefs while they sleep, and any residual unhappiness is resolved by an antidepressant.
Human embryos and fetuses are conditioned with carefully designed stimuli to yield the kinds of human beings best suited for a specific purpose.
As only a very limited portion of human function is exploited in today's mass production, deep knowledge of a craft, pursuit of perfection, and strong and enduring relationships are all liabilities.
In traditional Chinese societies, one person is often intended for one type of profession for life.
From his profession, he can derive spiritual as well material satisfaction, and qualities like loyalty and dedication are esteemed even above craftsmanship.
Loyalty and dedication is within reach of anybody. But for capitalists all that matters is ability.
"The untalented become invisible, they simply drop from view in institutions covertly judging ability rather than achievement," the book observes.
Their invisibility and marginality marks America's greatest social taboo: failure.
Only traits that can be productively exploited can be noted at all.
In my mind, my son is evocative of seven years of innocent laughs, his lisp, the clumsy way he walks, the toy goat and bear he clasps while asleep, and his observation yesterday morning that he prefers summer all year round, because he can have ice cream every day.
In schools, unless he No. 1 or No. 2, he is a failure, and expendable.
Although the Foxconn victims who chose to take their own life were all very young, according to Sennett, the New Capitalism favors young and inexperienced workers, for they by definition cannot assess corporate directives in light of their own experience.
"Since people can anchor themselves in life only by trying to do something well for its own sake, the triumph of superficiality at work, in schools, and in politics seems to me fragile," the book concludes.
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