Document Type
Essay
Publication Date
Spring 2022
Abstract
Miya Tokumitsu’s article ‘In the Name of Love’ is polemic against what she refers to as the DWYL (Do What You Love) movement that has been most recognisably popularised and transformed by Steve Jobs. She denounces this movement as an insidious ideology cleverly disguised as an uplifting lifestyle which has as its tenets labour, profit, and individualism; through her analysis of these tenets, she unveils them as alienation, erasure, and precarity, respectively. Her insights aid her in her aim to demonstrate that these ideological pillars do not support the wellbeing of the proletariat but rather reinforce the rugged structure of the bourgeoisie and of capitalism itself. This critique relates to and draws heavily from sociological concepts such as Karl Marx’s theory of alienation (seen in ‘Estranged Labour’), Max Weber’s work ethic (seen in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism), and Mark Fisher’s precarity (seen in his interview with Richard Capes published in K-Punk). While Tokumitsu’s critique is cautionary, it does not offer any substantive means to counteract the underlying cause of the DWYL ideology and would benefit from several of the propositions offered by Johann Hari’s Lost Connections. By unifying Marx, Weber and Fisher’s diagnostic talents with Hari’s prescriptive suggestions, Tokumitsu’s critique can be enhanced both theoretically and practically, bolstering an already well-developed argument against what can only be described as exploitative propaganda.
Recommended Citation
Dykeman, Trey, "Unlovable Labour: Rejecting the "Do What You Love" Ideology" (2022). Richard T. Schellhase Essay Prize in Ethics. 21.
https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/ethics_essay/21
Included in
Collective Bargaining Commons, Ethics and Political Philosophy Commons, Labor History Commons, Unions Commons, Work, Economy and Organizations Commons
Comments
Second prize winner.