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Mythology Of Work: How Capitalism Persists Despite Itself

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Is slavery really over? Is there a new form of potential work slavery that individuals are putting themselves through? Peter Fleming, author of Mythology of Work: How Capitalism Persists Despite Itself; wrote the article, “Why you shouldn’t let your smartphone be the boss of you”. The article being published on The Guardian, was on the Opinion’s part of the page. The article talked about jobs or careers of an individual that can easily take over someone’s life. People that are connected to their cellphones and email would be more susceptible, due to the fact that people began to do their job out of hours, and it becomes a work addiction. People in the twenty- first century are obsessing with their careers that they become attached to their …show more content…

The author, Professor Fleming, teaches Business and Society at City University, London. He has been studying capitalism, and his mission how to show that capitalism is still in our country. His book talks about how, “Work has turned our society, into a factory that never sleeps. It also shows the Critical theory, and it exposes accounts of job related suicides and fear of relaxation moments” (The University of Chicago Press Books). To prove his point he used many appeals to demonstrate his idea of work addictions. The appeal that was demonstrated the most would be pathos, he uses pathos to helps us understand that “a job is no longer something we do to achieve socially productive goals in society. An activity among other pursuits. No, a job today I something we are...preferably 24/7. Working unpaid overtime therefore seems natural. Self-exploitation looks like personal freedom” (Fleming). He is using pathos to help us feel a certain way about self-exploitation. We all know that it is bad, and working unpaid should not feel normal or natural for a person. Consequently, making people rethink their lives and if people are truly living for their career and not for themselves. He uses many credentials to show his point using the next appeal as …show more content…

It could be the way we use it, or the mindset we have of it. “Perhaps the tendency to self-abuse by email merely reflects our wider obsession with work, where we are all pieces of human capital who can’t afford to switch off. (The Guardian). Also this could easily be an ethos and logos example, but he uses the research from Chartered Management Institute that says, “Employees unwittingly cancel out their entire annual statutory holiday time with the after-hours work they do. Burnout and health problems are an inevitable consequence (The Guardian). Not only is it affecting their personal lives but also begins to affect their health on the long run, which many people would not think about

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