Labor and Attitude To It: Before and After Modernity

Abstract

The article examines  the problem of the changing nature of labor and attitudes towards it. The relevance of this topic continues to grow due to current trends in socio-economic development. The author draws attention to the fact that only in the industrial society, which was formed in Europe of the XIX century as result of the industrial revolution, labor was seen as the ability, need and duty of a person, as something that did and makes him a person. The positive value status of labor persists to some extent even today, but the industrial society has ceased to exist due to the overflow of labor force from industry to service. This overflow happened because of the increase in working efficiency. In the postindustrial society the process of a general reduction in labor in favor of leisure is unfolding as the value of the latter increases and the value of the former decreases. In this regard, it is useful to remember that in the agrarian society, as well as in the era of Antiquity and the Middle Ages labor was viewed as an anti-value and was the occupation of the lower classes and estates. The attitude towards labor in the post-industrial era approaches the attitude of the pre-industrial period, turning from positive to negative, while leisure becomes self-valuable and self-sufficient. Thus, one can agree with the opinion that the civilization of labor is being replaced today by the civilization of leisure.