On Vision and Arnold Schwarzenegger pt 2
The Rebuke
The issue that Arnold is right to identify, that 74% of Americans hate their work, is in fact a chronic issue in our society. If that number is true, but I’m ready to believe it. We all deserve better.
However, no amount of redefining your vision of life or your definition of success if enough to combat the reality of demeaning, stupid work. Jobs are not designed for our dignity; they are the result of need in business. Our livelihood is a convenience and the factor of “just business,” not a matter of what is good or worthwhile to do.
No amount of vision can save us from the fact that corporate employers don’t care about your dignity and will not. The result of a lacking employer flexibility to accommodate the basic needs of life (e.g. remote work) is now being met with “quiet quitting,” the silent commitment to do only one’s job description in resignation that there is no more growth in that job.
What does Arnie’s story assume?
It assumes that opportunity is there for anyone to cease and pursue. It assumes that hard “verk” is seen and rewarded. It assumes that there is liberty enough to pursue such a serious thing as “purpose” such that one escapes the daily meaninglessness that many face in the few hours after work.
I do try to resist cynicism, but I also don’t see anything else in this system of thought. This man gained his presence from the benefit of his body. I’m sure taking steroids and lifting weights was hard work (in a literal sense) but also probably awesome. It’s difficult to believe that kind of hard work is the same kind of “grind” that, today, erodes one’s dignity and self-confidence. Recognize that the “hard work” he references here (and that formed the base of his success) is the same work that he earlier described like “cumming day and night.”
I’m not ready to believe good ol’ Arnie is the right voice for this age of disappointing, drab work. I don’t think he is someone who can provide us with the tool of a clear definition about something vital like “vision” to figure out our problem of Work today. I have no doubt that there was pain and sacrifice involved in his story from weightlifting and onward, let alone being an immigrant. But does his story mean he is able to give us advice on vision, especially when considering that his sense of hard work was really still a version of play?
More soon,
Trevor