The End or the Apotheosis of “Labor”? Hannah Arendt's Contribution to the Question of the Good Life in Times of Global Superfluity of Human Labor Power

Abstract

This paper relates Arendt's critique of a labor society to her thoughts on the "good life." I begin with the claim that in the post-mass production era, Western societies, traditionally centered around gainful employment, encounter a decrease in the relevance of labor and can thus no longer rely on it as a resource for individual or social meaning. From Arendt's perspective, however, the current situation allows for the possibility ofa transition from a society based on labor to a society centered around activities. I explore Arendt's different types of activities-labor, work, action-with respect to the question of justice between the genders.What is most impressive in The Human Condition is the visionary foresight of Arendt's analysis ofa labor society and its approaching end. Her prediction dates back to the 1950s, when industrial nations were in the midst of the recovery boom after World War I1 and still held an optimistic belief in an uninhibited progress. "What we are confronted with is the prospect of a society of laborers without labor, that is, without the only activity left to them. Surely, nothing could be worse." Arendt recognized even then that the concurrence of dropping employment quotas, resulting from technological advancement, and increasing productivity would not liberate modern industrialized societies but rather pose an existential threat.

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