i haven't written a post this long in a while.

i was researching freeganism recently, because i find it interesting. so, i read the "why freegan?" page. and it said this:

Working Sucks - Where does the money you spend come from? You or your folks working long hours at a dehumanizing job, most likely. You don’t have to compromise yourself and your humanity to the evil demon of wage-slavery! Working sucks and if a little scavenging can keep you from needing a job than go jump in a dumpster! Even if you do need to work to pay your bills, think about how much less you would have to work if you didn’t have to buy food.

true, this does look a little too fanatical to take seriously. but i take everything seriously, so here is what i thought:
in a world where no one worked and everyone scavenged, pretty soon everything would run out. then, people would need to grow and make their own things, which is work in itself. this is originally what work was. however, as humanity got more and more complicated, all kinds of services began to be needed. thus, gradually, "work" became separate from taking care of oneself. actually, for most of history, people had to do both. no, let me rephrase that: men had to do one thing, women had to do the other. men would grow/buy food, make money, etc. women would cook the food, make the clothes, etc. however, quite recently, women (at least in some parts of the world) rejected this role and began to work as well. so now (in developed countries), everyone works. the cooking and clothes-making, and even some of the cleaning and childcare, is done by someone else as their work. everyone does one thing and one thing only. what if everyone, instead of "working" in the way that men used to, would "work" in the way women used to? actually, thinking about it, this is not possible. basic things like crops, cotton, etc. have to come from people working.
but what about recycling? what if we actually don't need that stuff, because we have so much junk lying around already that we could just use that? that still leaves food, though. although it is possible to do as the freegans do and eat recycled food, it wouldn't last for very long. thus, we would need farmers.
but, is it human to become more and more extravagant? to, gradually, think that we require all of these services and luxuries and advances? and i suppose, on a certain level, we do. we are weak. we cannot live just for ourselves--we must huddle together and move forwardforwardforward------->.
so this is my answer to the above paragraph by the freegans: work is human. the only negative work is that which undermines or does not progress society.