Work, Earning Things and Getting Lucky

In its article on the Protestant work ethic, Wikipedia says:
“Protestants, beginning with Martin Luther, reconceptualized worldly work as a duty which benefits both the individual and society as a whole… The Protestant work ethic is often credited with helping to define the societies of Northern Europe.”

And Catholics? The Catholics themselves joke about their attitude towards work (think of countries like Italy and Spain when you read this):
“How can work be good when it’s God’s punishment on us?”
(Adam and Eve didn’t have to work in Eden until they ate the apple).

Does this difference in the attitude towards work explain why Catholic countries have far more lotteries than Protestant ones, wonders Gabriel Zaid (half tongue in cheek, I guess)? After all, winning a lottery is “to reap without working”, says Zaid.

Continuing in that vein, Zaid says:
“It was the culture of Catholicism, after all, that invented the probability calculus.”
Do you see the connection? Pascal came up with probability theory to help gamblers. And isn’t gambling another example of reaping without working?!

I am guessing the Protestant work ethic subscribes more to Albert Einstein’s famous line:
“God does not play dice with the universe.”
The Catholics, by that token would like Heisenberg and his Uncertainty Principle better!

Now that we have stumbled onto the hazy world of quantum mechanics, let’s go even further and consider the almost philosophical musings of Santosh Desai:
“There is nothing natural and fixed about the idea of work. Tele-marketing is work in spite of being a source of intense displeasure after each encounter, being a liftman is work, in spite of adding very little incremental value to the world, being a housewife and mother, on the other gets one labeled as a ‘non-working’ person.”
Apparently we can’t even define work in the real world, and yet we have such clear moral opinions on the topic of work and reward!

Comments

  1. Ramiah KumarOctober 24, 2018 at 11:56 AM

    There could be some view on relating to the religious denominations, having some merit. However, how well the correlation between religious denominations and attitude to work can be may require much larger ambit of study, to conclude satisfactorily. For example, the Japanese dedication to work sets them on an altogether different plane. There is no Christian effect, in terms of attitude molding, there.

    There is another point also which I find may not yield to a simple way of correlation. I can't believe that probability ideas can have easier alignment with Catholic denomination while non-probability kind of science has more intense alignment with Protestant denomination. Science is an intrinsically secular domain. No matter how much the religious people are desirous of loading their beliefs on to science, science cannot become subservient to dogmas. On the other hand, it is possible (in truth, that is what is happening too) for anyone from any part of the world belonging to any religious background, to contribute to science, surely in keeping with its methods and objectives. Anyway, I think the line about science in the blog is only a passing, non-serious mention. No need for fuss, even though I did mention something here.

    Lastly, I am as usual clean-bold with the use of the expression "such clear moral opinions on the topic of work". In earlier times, the word morality would associate with proposals coming from religion about "what is right" and "what is wrong". The society towing predominantly the religious line in those days hardly wanted to believe that morality can be 'a bad thing'. People hardly questioned them, even when they were wrong, at least in regions where the Semitic religions dominate. It was left to the rebels, not religious followers, to establish secularism in Europe. [Whereas dharma is not morality per-se - it is about a choice the doer has to exercise, to take upon oneself the right direction. I am not saying that people of Eastern religions actually go about it that way. But, in principle, dharma is not defined in the same way of Ten Commandments of Christianity or Sharia of Islam. Dharma is less prescriptive considerably descriptive in spirit; but spirit may not rule of course, I admit!]

    After blah blah, coming to the point now: Today, the word "morality" seems to have only one connotation - "assertion of one's idea of what is right, which lacks any sense of truth and fairness, due to lack of objectivity". Well, I may not like the extreme tilt of that; but I do agree that there are varying, subjective viewpoints about work ethics - and they prevail in the work arena.

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