Jeffery Nicholas' Thoughts on Social Reality
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Jeffery L Nicholas

Philosophy and social theory
dedicated
to building a society of flourishing people
united in common goods.

Work and Community

11/6/2016

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It is characteristic of work that it first and foremost unites people. In this consists its social power: the power to build a community. In the final analysis, both those who work and those who manage the means of production or who own them must in some way be united in this community. In the light of this fundamental structure of all work-in the light of the fact that, in the final analysis, labour and capital are indispensable components of the process of production in any social system-it is clear that, even if it is because of their work needs that people unite to secure their rights, their union remains a constructive factor of social order and solidarity, and it is impossible to ignore it.
       --John Paul II, Laborem Exercens ¶20
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Read that first line again: labor unites people; its social power consists in building a community.

In the three utopias I've recently read, this description of work holds true. In Pacific Edge, the characters share work in reshaping the town of El Modena, taking apart old structures and recycling their bits to better the town. But even aside from that, the people decide together what kinds of work go into making the community--what allows the community to exist according to the values of the members of that community.

In Always Coming Home, the people arrange themselves in various Houses each with its own characteristic forms of labor. In a sense, these Houses resemble Medieval guilds, which JP II refers to in this section to defend unions. The people do not need unions to defend their "rights" to various social goods, however, because the community comes together to support each other. A person identifies the labor she wants to engage in, and she can change this labor at any point in her life.

In The Fifth Sacred Thing, people form various guilds as well, the Healer's Guild and the Water Council, etc. The struggle over identifying his work defines Bird's central arc in the novel, while Modena must struggle with what it means to be a midwife. Yet, again, no one is stuck in any work. Moreover, as in the previous two novels, people must commit some time to communal work.

These utopian visions are quite distinct from what most of us experience in our daily lives. I labor at a medium sized Catholic college. Our labor should be building a community. In some ways, I think it does: I have connections with many people across campus and along various lines of labor: teaching, building an ALC community, laboring for diversity, supporting a conference, etc. Yet, I think even we could come to appreciate more the way our labor makes us a community and, in that way, make us more of a community. I believe this point holds especially true for my department which suffers so much because so many ignore our common labor: teaching philosophy.

What would it be like, though, if we all began to see labor in this way? I'm afraid today we see work as a means to an end: wealth, security, etc. That is its only purpose, and so people long for the weekend when they no longer work. Or for winning the lottery so they can do what they really want to do.

And who can blame most people: those who work in the service industry. This work is not labor; it is not grounded in love. Oh for this or that person, it may be, but that person is a rare creature.

Perhaps our question today is rather simple and straightforward: does globalized capital have any room for labor for all or even for most, or will the vast majority of humanity swelter in work, never knowing community?

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HOPE

10/27/2016

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I have been wanting to say something about hope. Well, more specifically, I've been wanting to talk about Supergirl (and Superman) and hope.

The symbol of the House of El is a symbol of hope. I think that is the wonderful thing about Superman and Supergirl. But the recent Superman movies, directed by Snyder, have been about anything other than hope--they've been about fear. Jonathan Kent fears that someone will discover that Clark is an alien and that the government will take him away. And he convinces Clark to buy into that hope so much that Clark watches his father die from a tornado. Batman versus Superman was grounded in fear: Batman feared that Superman would destroy them all; Superman feared that Batman was a vigilante that didn't believe in justice. They feared each other so much that they took their eye off the real villain, Lex Luthor, who, of course, is only a villain because he fears the red capes--and someone should say something about how Luthor and Batman share that same fear.

Then recently, I watched the new Supergirl series. What a refreshing new wind--a wind of hope. Yes, Supergirl is a little campy because it is a television show. Yet, it is so grounded in the meaning of the House of El--hope--that it says something about our everyday world. The fears in the first season of Supergirl are fears surrounding the alien--the other. And as others have noted, sometimes what is being hinted at is the fear of sexuality and queerness. Cara "comes out" as Supergirl.

Yet, unlike Snyder's Superman, Supergirl never let's that fear drive her. Instead, she purposefully sees herself as a symbol of hope. So much so that the end of the first season--which could have been the end of the series--see Supergirl literally spreading hope to the people of National City to combat the robotic--should we say zombie-like--control they've fallen to.

In this election season, we are continuously told that we should fear the election of the other person. Many people are willing to buy into this fear, just as Snyder's Clark Kent buys into the fear that Jonathan Kent has.

Our challenge is not to fear. Whether it is fear of women, fear of Muslims, fear of Mexicans, or fear of angry white men, it will drive us to be zombies who follow a ruler without any thought to the hope that really lies ahead. We have to instead dig into ourselves to find that hope, and then spread it to others.

Just like Supergirl.

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    Author

    Jeffery L. Nicholas (Ph.D philosophy, University of Kentucky) is an associate professor at Providence College and an international scholar on ethics and politics. He serves as research associate for the Center for Aristotelian Studies in Ethics and Politics at London Metropolitan University and a foreign research associate at Universidad Sergio Arboleda in Bogotá Colombia. Dr. Nicholas is co-founder of and executive secretary for the International Society for MacIntyrean Enquiry. He is the author of Reason, Tradition, and the Good: MacIntyre's Tradition Constituted Reason and Frankfurt School Critical Theory (UNDP 2012), as well as numerous articles. Dr. Nicholas writes on midwifery and birth, the common good, friendship and community, practical reason, and Native American philosophy. He aims to develop a philosophy of integral humanism that synthesizes the philosophical traditions of Alasdair MacIntyre, Frankfurt School Critical Theory, and Feminist Care Ethics.

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