# A Simple Paradox of Work By:: [[Ross Jackson]] 2024-02-26 Work is both drudgery and fulfillment. Where and how one works can make it more of one or the other, but inherently, work contains both. Work is fatiguing. Whether mental or physical, one can exhaust oneself in one’s labor. Simultaneously, work is invigorating. Excitement comes from progress. A sense of pride is established when one looks back and observes what one has accomplished through one’s work. Work is a paradox. There is a tendency in Western societies to attempt to reduce paradoxes. To determine which polarity is the underlying, “correct” one, and marginalize the other side, to not allow things to be in contradiction. This tradition comes to us from our Aristotelian roots. Aristotle established this in his law of noncontradiction, which states that contradictory propositions cannot be simultaneously true. Something cannot be A and not A. Yet, things are contradictory all the time. So much for laws. The inherent joy of doing work can be diminished by being exploited. The meaninglessness of the task can tarnish the sense of accomplishment. Work experience is at least the experience of two distinct things: the work itself and the system in which it is executed. Much of work is ennobling. Much of operating within a system of oppression is not. These two elements are symbiotic. As such, the unit of analysis is neither the work nor the system but rather the work-system. Understanding the work-system provides insight into how the tensions arising from the paradoxes of work related to drudgery and fulfillment are routinized and perpetuated. Working toward a more harmonious balance of this paradox requires a critique of the work-system, authenticity, and solidarity. #### Related Items [[Work]] [[Drudgery]] [[Fulfillment]] [[Paradox]] [[Law]] [[Philosophy]] [[Authenticity]] [[Solidarity]]