Hairdressers vs Shipbuilders in the Cosmic Importance Stakes

[ScabbyDouglas]

Douglas Adams - somewhere in the Hitchhiker's Guide series describes the removal from society, and marooning of hairdressers and people with other occupations like telephone sanitation ( I think) with something approaching glee.

Now, to be honest, I may have expressed similar sentiments myself about some sectors of society from time to time.
People who work in advertising, and also parking wardens, are regular targets of my impotent ire. But when you come right down to it, what's the difference between a Michelangelo - celebrated sculptor, painter - and a Michelle - hairdresser in a local salon?

I cannot speak for all societies, and am out on a limb even speaking for my own, but it seems that in general there is a notion that some occupations and professions are seen as being more worthwhile than others. So a doctor is seen as a "better" ocupation than a telephone marketer, a carpenter is more valued than, say, a bar tender. Maybe the relative values I have suggested are wrong. These examples or not intended to be insulting or to denigrate anyone.

I think that I am referring to the implied "moral" value rather than the financial value. How does society impart these attitudes and judgments? If you could choose a profession, knowledge and ability granted, then what would you choose? I think there are a couple of responses to this, and I'd be interested what people have to say.

In the overall scheme of things, does it matter whether one is a poet or the inside man at the skonk works?

[Fear_nam_Beanntan]

Criterion for judging moral value of a career:

How much people would miss you if you stopped working.

[ScabbyDouglas]

"How much people would miss you if you stopped working."
Yeah - I started off from there, too, I suppose... I think that was Douglas Adams's point. And people would miss hairdressers, I suppose - but I still don't believe that I have changed my viewpoint on the worth to society of hairdressers as a group.


I think that apart from the value to "society", there is no intrinsic value in anything that anyone does. The only "good" or "usefulness" or "value" lies in the assessments and judgments of other people. Which makes sense.

It's the idea that some people seem to long to abandon some forms of work that they find shallow or unfulfilling or lacking in meaning. These people long for more fulfilling work, more significant occupations.

My point is that it doesn't matter that much whether you make shoes, sell stocks and shares, or write poetry. The only measure of what your work is worth is how other people value it. Everyone does thinsg for other people. A shipbuilder build vessels for other people. A farmer grows food for himself - and other people. A singer may love music, but when he sings out loud, he sings to other people.

[Fear_nam_Beanntan]

Originally posted by ScabbyDouglas
I think that apart from the value to "society", there is no intrinsic value in anything that anyone does.

I would say this only holds true within the realm of economics. There is great intrinsic value in works of charity, since they help the one who does them along the road to moral perfection.

[Celyn]

“How much people would miss you if you stopped working."

Interesting one there (and it certainly puts the queen in her place) Most of us would miss the refuse collection workers a lot faster than we would miss, well, many other groups really.

Shop/supermarket staff - often reviled as as stupid or unhelpful, yet it would be just a bit inconvenient not to be able to wander into the shop and get the odd bit of bread and cheese. (Yeah, ok, one could bake the bread, but even then there would be a need for yeast and flour.)

Lift Maintenance staff - I am sure no-one “misses” them at all - until stuck in a lift!

Society’s attribution of pervceived “importance” for want of a better word, is very often bizarre, I think, considering the difference is social “status” between, say, cleaners and clergy, or ambulance drivers and authors, (fond though I am of reading.)

And when I consider the celebrity cult of the footballer, soap opera actor or the manufactured pop star......................well words fail me.





Douglas Adams had the right idea about the hairdressers though



[Edited by Celyn on 15th October 2003 at 20:53]

[Celyn]

[quote]Originally posted by Fear_nam_Beanntan

.........

There is great intrinsic value in works of charity, since they help the one who does them along the road to moral perfection.

FnB - No, I think you are on philosophically dodgy ground there. If I were were to give a needy person food, or money, that could reasonably be considered a kind or charitable act, but if my motivation, whether full or partial, is to make myself feel “good”, then it has nothing whatsoever to do with “moral perfection”.

[Fear_nam_Beanntan]

I was using the phrase works of charity in the theological sense i.e. works that spring from love. I was not referring to all works which help the less fortunate.