Status Updates From What to Do?

Ch40- he then says once women is done having children she can help men with their labour, it would be a pity if she didn’t have children if she could’ve have them.

Ch40-‘a woman in addition to the possibility of serving men by all the means open to men i by the construction of her body called and inevitably attracted to serve others by that which is alone is accepted from the domain of the service of men’. By this he says women can choose which duties to perform, but later says women must have children and have less duties at which they can’t fail. Contradicts himself?

Ch40- men should fulfil 4 types of labour, while women to continue the race by producing children, since only they can do it. He says it’s dictated by nature, not by men. Since men have more variety of duties they can fail at some and still be considered successful, while women as she has smaller number of duties if she fails she falls lower than men. Such is the substance of the matter.

Ch40-women who don’t produce children are poisoned by men who gave up the law of labour. Women who produce children and take care of them, follow such law and make better society, able to save humankind. Spend time with them, educate them, teach moral principles to them, clean and feed them. Make her children her purpose, feel this is what you’re called to do by sacrificing yourself, even when no one appreciates.

Ch39- people must see those truths he says, become conscious of it and make a change, so it’s shameful to not do things for themselves, instead of thinking it’s shameful to not have a lot of money and servants. Man mist take from others only what’s necessary for his life and submit to labour and dangers of life.

Ch39-he thinks people who do that will have a clear conscience and be happy, and others see that their problems can be solved easier. Nothing is our own besides our body, and we shouldn’t claim those ours eg other people, buildings, money, all those are imaginary properties. We should learn how to do 4 types of work to be able to satisfy our needs for ourselves. Then you’ll have less needs and more satisfaction.

Ch38-all people need to perform all 4 types of labour, making different useful things, eg buildings, science, shoes, society, so we understand other people more and we may like doing what we would like to do, like writing. If we only write we may grow tired of it, lose inspiration and be unable to produce good quality writing. Only if you do it better than anyone and others ask you to do it, you can focus on it.

Ch38- ‘to eat and not to work is the most dangerous state’. Find work and it’ll be pleasant and satisfy us. 4 stages of day before breakfast, from breakfast to dinner, from dinner to evening meal, from evening meal to night. Labour if muscles, fingers and skills, intellect and imagination, activity with other men. Those 4 produce different things used by others.

Ch38-he says people who aren’t producing things for benefit of society should be honest with themselves and admit they are useless. He says we should ask ‘How can I a useless man fix a mistake of wasting my best years studying science useless for body and learn to serve men’. We should earn our living, clothing, feeding, building etc while serving others, and buy less, making our life similar to workmen’s.

Ch37- he says people creating art or science don’t work for workmen, again, repeating this thought so many times over the past few chapters it is boring and doesn’t add more arguments for it, other than they are greedy and making things for money and the rich.

Ch36- he says how scientists expect people to forget old teachings of people like Buddha or Jesus and start from the beginning, studying molecules and things you can’t see. He saw these old teachings as true science and everything going away from it isn’t art or science.

Ch35- people of science, art etc at a given time see themselves as helping humankind in a meaningful way and much better than anyone in the past. Science and human knowledge exist independently of any individual scientist or thinker. It criticizes ego-driven claims to discovery or authority, urging humility and shared responsibility for knowledge.

Ch35- he argues that medicine is accessible only to rich and doesn’t address issues like how to dress, wash, divide the period of labour, how to counteract dampness and cold in worker conditions. Education is created for the rich, and poor people’s children need to help with work of their families and they still pay taxes to keep those schools. He thinks the only option is to make teachers live with workmen.

Ch34- he refuses to see how technological improvements made working men lives better, giving examples like railway being built at an expense of cutting down trees destroying forests and therefore making him a slave to railway proprietor, or machines at manufactures taking away their jobs, or telegraphs which they couldn’t afford. He says everything is created for the benefit of rich people and is unaccessible.

Ch33 - science and art are fine things and can grow humankind. Those people should still serve others by labour, not use others to escape the human duty of labouring with their hands and human fight with nature.

Ch32-he argues that people who don’t produce forgot they were supposed to do something to benefit those who do, and instead spend their lives amusing themselves and don’t even understand how they could help working people anymore.

Ch31- he says science, art, government and clergy aren’t wanted by anyone and cannot be considered division of labour, which works if people produce something useful to others.If people don’t spend time observing themselves and instead trusting observations of others,they lose understanding of good and evil. Those who don’t produce are parasites who are unable to think clearly and go back to simple way of life.

Ch29-he wrote about writers like Hegel were used until no longer needed by powerful classes, or people overlooking mistakes purely because they believe science and great minds are always right, which aren’t, giving example of Malthus. He criticizes people saying they study only facts, but don’t think which facts to study and use. Division of labor is necessary but often misused to justify inequality and idleness.

Ch27/28-he harshly criticizes scientists, artists, government officials, and clergy as useless parasites exploiting the working class. He argues that their work often harms societal welfare, is detached from real human needs, and serves only elite interests.
I disagree, as science and art are necessary for intellectual growth and technological advancements. It depends on us if it harms us or not, like social media.

Ch26- he gives two exceptions for not be producing work like others- one that you have a specific function which is different than others like Queen B for bees, second to have a purpose which benefits all and both should compensate others. He said it could be explained in the past, but with Christianity all humans are equal, so both become invalid justifications. He says we should stop looking for new reasons.

Ch25- he thinks that city people who are rich agree that a person should be useful to others, yet don’t see they aren’t and it’s wrong.

Ch25-he romanticised countryside saying it’s always pure,people work for themselves happily. Unlike in city where people are enslaved unable to get proper rest.
I think he didn’t look at it realistically.My grandmother grew up owning a farm and they had to wake up before dawn to work, had short break to eat and worked till dusk, ruining their bodies. They all hated it and were poor with diseases from hard work.

Ch24- he compares hiring people, and making them into human machines, who keep producing goods so they can live comfortably, to feasting on human flesh because others do so. He condemns such behavior and says you shouldn’t do it, even if others around do it.

Ch24- he mentions people working for 12 hours per day, who wake up early work till late and have nothing to show for it, only to get drunk when they have rare free time.
It reminds me of how most people work and wait for the weekend to go to a party and drink, to forget their lives.

Ch23- he says he should work more and make others work less, to stop being lazy. He thinks each person should do more, instead of hiring others to do it for us.
I think it’s unrealistic, rooted in moral and religious vision rather than economic reality. The expectation that everyone should do more physical labor to lessen others’ burden overlooks benefits of division of labor, innovation, and economic growth.

Ch22- he thinks money is evil in itself as it takes away labour of others just like oppressors in the past. He talks about Bible teaching to help poor, give away things you have in excess, work for the good of others. He proposes to free yourself from landlord, take rent and money raised by military force. He also compares town and countryside, saying how you can be useful and good person in the latter.

Ch21- money takes away the human relationship in the slavery, as you don’t know who owes you what and what you owe to someone, just know to pay taxes and debt.

From chapter 18 he keeps repeating himself and is boring, while before he provided some new ideas, now I feel like I read the same sentence few pages before. I hope it becomes better later.

Ch21 besides duties to other men we have a duty to God or State. Men are enslaved, but politicians and clergy say that State requires money, soldiers etc. People have money taken away and used for purposes they don’t understand. Wherever there are people who utilize labour of others by cohesion, and others who agree you have slavery. He sees it as violence. Mentions Henry George national land instead of personal.

Ch19 Tolstoy critiques systemic oppression: the first by sword (violence), by hunger (control through deprivation), and by taxes (economic dependency). He thinks all three are necessary for the enslavement and thinks we are slaves since we have to pay taxes and would suffer punishment if we don’t follow rules, yet we ignore it. He doesn’t provide ideas on how to avoid becoming a slave of those 3 systems.

Ch18- he believes money is used to conquer others and use them instead of taking land and produce from them, as money is easier to store and exchange for other things of value. He says it wouldn’t matter in a world without such violence. It’s connected to Marx’s critique of capital accumulation and surplus value extraction, as well as class struggle.