By Andrew Taggart

Imagine that work had taken over the world. It would be the centre around which the rest of life turned. Then all else would come to be subservient1 to work. Then slowly， almost imperceptibly， anything else—the games once played， the songs hitherto sung，2 the loves fulfilled， the festivals celebrated—would come to resemble， and ultimately become， work. And then there would come a time， itself largely unobserved， when the many worlds that had once existed before work took over the world would vanish completely from the cultural record， having fallen into oblivion3.

And how， in this world of total work， would people think and sound and act？ Everywhere they looked， they would see the pre-employed， employed， post-employed， underemployed and unemployed， and there would be no one uncounted in this census4. Everywhere they would laud and love work， wishing each other the very best for a productive day， opening their eyes to tasks and closing them only to sleep. Everywhere an ethos of hard work would be championed as the means by which success is to be achieved， laziness being deemed the gravest sin. Everywhere among contentproviders， knowledge-brokers，5 collaboration architects and heads of new divisions would be heard ceaseless chatter about workflows and deltas， about plans and benchmarks， about scaling up， monetisation and growth.

In this world， eating， excreting， resting， exercising， meditating and commuting—closely monitored and ever-optimised—would all be conducive to good health， which would， in turn， be put in the service of being more and more productive. No one would drink too much， some would microdose on psychedelics to enhance their work performance， and everyone would live indefinitely long.

This world， it turns out， is not a work of science fiction； it is unmistakably6 close to our own.

“Total work”， a term coined by the German philosopher Josef Pieper7 just after the Second World War in his book Leisure： The Basis of Culture （1948）， is the process by which human beings are transformed into workers and nothing else. By this means， work will ultimately become total， I argue， when it is the centre around which all of human life turns； when everything else is put in its service； when leisure， festivity and play come to resemble and then become work； when there remains no further dimension to life beyond work； when humans fully believe that we were born only to work； and when other ways of life， existing before total work won out， disappear completely from cultural memory.

We are on the verge8 of total works realisation.

What is so disturbing about total work is not just that it causes needless human suffering but also that it eradicates the forms of playful contemplation concerned with our asking，9 pondering and answering the most basic questions of existence. There is， to begin with， constant tension， an overarching10 sense of pressure associated with the thought that theres something that needs to be done， always something Im supposed to be doing right now. Secondly， one feels guilt whenever he is not as productive as possible.

The burden character of total work， then， is defined by ceaseless， restless， agitated activity， anxiety about the future， a sense of life being overwhelming， nagging thoughts about missed opportunities，11 and guilt connected to the possibility of laziness. In short， total work necessarily causes dukkha12， a Buddhist term referring to the unsatisfactory nature of a life filled with suffering.

In addition to causing dukkha， total work bars13 access to higher levels of reality. For what is lost in the world of total work is arts revelation of the beautiful， religions glimpse of eternity， loves unalloyed joy，14 and philosophys sense of wonderment. All of these require silence， stillness， a wholehearted willingness to simply apprehend. If meaning， understood as the ludic interaction of finitude and infinity， is precisely what transcends， here and now， the ken of our preoccupations and mundane tasks，15 enabling us to have a direct experience with what is greater than ourselves， then what is lost in a world of total work is the very possibility of our experiencing meaning. What is lost is seeking why were here.

設(shè)想一下，如果工作統(tǒng)治了世界，生活中其余的事情都要圍著工作這個(gè)中心轉(zhuǎn)并聽命于工作。然后其他的任何事情——曾經(jīng)玩過的游戲、唱過的歌，曾經(jīng)得到的愛、慶祝過的節(jié)日——都會(huì)慢慢地、幾乎不被我們察覺地變得與工作相似，并最終被工作同化。隨后這樣一個(gè)時(shí)代就會(huì)在我們不經(jīng)意間來到：工作統(tǒng)治世界之前的歷史都會(huì)完全從文化記錄中消失，被我們遺忘。

在這個(gè)完全被工作支配的世界里，人們會(huì)如何思考、說話和行動(dòng)呢？凡是人們目光所及，都充滿著“就業(yè)前”、“就業(yè)中”、“退休”、“未充分就業(yè)”和“失業(yè)”的標(biāo)簽，沒有人能跳出這五個(gè)分類。凡是人們所及之處，每個(gè)人都會(huì)贊美和熱愛工作，并把“希望你有高產(chǎn)的一天”當(dāng)做最好的祝福語。人們一睜眼就投入到工作任務(wù)當(dāng)中，閉眼只是為了睡覺。在任何地方，努力工作的精神都將會(huì)被奉為實(shí)現(xiàn)成功的手段，而懶惰將會(huì)被認(rèn)定為最嚴(yán)重的罪行。無論在何處，不管是內(nèi)容供應(yīng)商、知識(shí)經(jīng)紀(jì)人，還是合作建筑師、新部門領(lǐng)導(dǎo)，都會(huì)不停地在談?wù)撝ぷ髁鞒?、增量、?jì)劃、基準(zhǔn)、擴(kuò)大規(guī)模、貨幣化和增長這些事情。

在這樣的世界里，吃飯、排泄、休息、鍛煉、沉思以及上下班這些事情都被細(xì)致地調(diào)控和最優(yōu)化，使得這些事情的完成能夠有助于身體健康，并最終服務(wù)于提高工作效率這一目標(biāo)。人們不能過度飲酒，有些人可以通過使用微量的致幻劑來提高他們的工作業(yè)績(jī)，每個(gè)人都可以無限期地活下去。

事實(shí)上，這樣的世界并不是科幻小說，而是真的離我們很近。

“工作就是一切”是德國哲學(xué)家約瑟夫·皮珀在他二戰(zhàn)后出版的《閑暇——文化的基礎(chǔ)》（1948）一書中提出的概念。這個(gè)概念描繪的是人類完全被轉(zhuǎn)變成勞動(dòng)者的過程。以這個(gè)概念為出發(fā)點(diǎn)，我認(rèn)為，當(dāng)人類生活的一切都開始圍著工作這個(gè)中心轉(zhuǎn)并完全聽命于工作的時(shí)候，當(dāng)閑暇、節(jié)日和玩耍都變得逐漸與工作相似并被工作同化的時(shí)候，當(dāng)工作之外生活失去了其他維度的時(shí)候，當(dāng)人們完全相信他們生來就只是為了工作的時(shí)候，當(dāng)之前存在過的其他的生活方式完全從文化記憶中消失的時(shí)候，工作終將變?yōu)橐磺小?/p>

我們已經(jīng)到了面臨“工作就是一切”的時(shí)候了。

“工作就是一切”令人不安的地方，并不只是在于它給人類造成了不必要的痛苦，還在于它扼殺了多種多樣的、關(guān)乎人類生存最根本問題的提出、思考與回答的有趣的沉思。起初，人們會(huì)感受到一種持續(xù)不斷的緊張感，一種支配一切的、來自“有任務(wù)需要我去做”、“總有一些事情是需要我現(xiàn)在立即去做”的壓力感。隨后，當(dāng)不能在工作中盡可能地做到高效率的時(shí)候，人們會(huì)感到愧疚。

“工作就是一切”令人感到沉重，源于不停的、無休止的、不安的活動(dòng)，源于對(duì)未來的焦慮和在生活面前的無力感，源于錯(cuò)失良機(jī)的懊惱情緒以及懶惰所帶來的愧疚?？傊?，“工作就是一切”會(huì)必然帶來佛教所說的“苦”——不盡如人意的、充滿痛苦的現(xiàn)世之本質(zhì)。

除了帶來苦，“工作就是一切”還阻礙了通向更高層次現(xiàn)實(shí)的道路。在工作統(tǒng)治一切的世界中，我們失去的，是藝術(shù)對(duì)于美的展現(xiàn)，是宗教對(duì)于永恒的領(lǐng)悟，是愛所帶來純粹的快樂，是哲學(xué)所引發(fā)的驚嘆之感。所有的這一切，都需要安靜、沉靜，和一心一意追求領(lǐng)悟的精神狀態(tài)。如果“意義”——被我們理解為有限和無限之間玩笑似的相互作用——能夠超越我們當(dāng)下關(guān)注的領(lǐng)域和平凡的工作，并能夠使我們直接體驗(yàn)到比我們更宏大的存在，那么在“工作就是一切”所支配的世界中，我們失去的，正是我們體驗(yàn)到“意義”的可能性。我們失去的，是對(duì)“我們?yōu)槭裁创嬖凇边@一問題的探尋。

1. subservient： 從屬的，附屬的。

2. imperceptibly： 察覺不到地；hitherto：迄今。

3. oblivion： 遺忘。

4. census： 人口普查。

5. content-provider： 內(nèi)容供應(yīng)商，簡(jiǎn)稱CP，指提供服務(wù)內(nèi)容的供應(yīng)商，內(nèi)容可以是文字、圖像、音頻和視頻等各種媒體內(nèi)容；knowledge-broker： 知識(shí)經(jīng)紀(jì)人，指通過維普網(wǎng)平臺(tái)進(jìn)行作品發(fā)布和傳播，從而在知識(shí)的擁有方和需求方之間建立聯(lián)系的組織或個(gè)人。

6. unmistakably： 顯而易見地，真切地。

7. Josef Pieper： 約瑟夫·皮珀（1904—1997），德國哲學(xué)家，曾為明斯特大學(xué)哲學(xué)和人類學(xué)教授。

8. verge： 邊緣。

9. eradicate： 根除，消滅；contemplation：沉思。

10. overarching： 首要的，支配一切的。

11. ceaseless： 不停的；agitated： 激動(dòng)的，焦慮的；overwhelming： 壓倒性的，勢(shì)不可擋的；nagging： 無法擺脫的，令人煩惱不安的。

12. dukkha： 佛教中的一個(gè)重要概念，常譯作“苦”，指的是因?qū)λ资赖牟槐M如人意、不圓滿而產(chǎn)生的痛苦。

13. bar： 阻礙。

14. revelation： 揭露；unalloyed：純粹的。

15. ludic： 頑皮的，好開玩笑的；finitude：有限；infinity： 無限；transcend： 超越；ken： 視野；preoccupation： 長時(shí)間思索、擔(dān)憂某事的狀態(tài)；mundane： 世俗的，平凡的。