Thoreauvian Punk & the American Work Ethic

“This world is a place of business. What an infinite bustle! …It would be glorious to see mankind at leisure for once. It is nothing but work, work, work. I think that there is nothing, not even crime, more opposed to poetry, to philosophy, ay, to life itself, than this incessant business.” -- Henry Thoreau

These thoughts from Henry Thoreau's essay Life Without Principle might seem to suggest Thoreau was a bit of a layabout, a "Do-little" as he was sometimes referred to around his hometown of Concord. And that mis-reading of his words and his tone is a part of the misconception that Thoreau -- "the hermit in the woods" -- was opposed to work. In fact, Thoreau was quite the opposite and was almost incessantly active doing one job or another for most of his short life. 

The caveat is Thoreau's questioning of why people work, how much they should work, what they exchange or give up because of work, and how to balance the all important distinction between "making a living" and "making a life." And that conflict has been central to Americans' love-hate relationship with work for most of the country's history. It's of course an interesting conundrum, especially for a nation ground in the Puritan work ethic, (or Protestant for that matter), and it's the heart of a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, America's Long Love/Hate Relationship with Work."

To understand how Americans feel about work, consider two often-cited, but seemingly contradictory, philosophies. First, there’s the American dream—the belief that hard work can bring prosperity. And second, there’s the chart-topping country song “Take This Job and Shove It.” They are two sides of the same coin: The hope that work will move us above our station, and our disappointment when it doesn’t happen as promised.

Ever since the founding of the country, Americans have defined themselves by their work, and by the wealth and status it can bring. Benjamin Franklin argued that hard work was essential for success. In the late 1800s, there were the Horatio Alger stories, extolling the idea that the new country was the land of opportunity, where people could go from poverty to wealth because of what they did for a living.

That has never been more true than in modern America. In recent decades, work has taken on even more importance—promising not just money, benefits and a sense of identity, but also community, purpose and belonging. Millennials were told to follow their passion in commencement speeches by Oprah Winfrey, Steve Jobs and Jim Carrey; anything less would be considered a disappointment. A larger share of Americans, responding to the World Values Survey in 2017, said work was important in their life than those who said religion—79.7% vs. 60.7%.

Little wonder, then, that in a recent Wall Street Journal-NORC poll, about 70% said they believe the American dream doesn’t hold true, the highest in nearly 15 years of surveys.