What does the rejection of work mean to you?

Question

I pretty much take it that a critique of work has to be central to anarchist/anticapitalist politics. However, I am wondering what exactly the sense of this critique might be, since it seems like there could be at least a few different implications.

-Do you envision work completely eliminated, as in, no activity, even? Fully automated luxury communism? Lounging in the jungle waiting for a fruit to drop from the branch?

-Do you imagine quite simply the end of work in the sense of a wage-relation, but not the end of productive "labor"?

-Do you imagine that humanity could resume doing activity identified with its species-being (i.e. activity that supports its existence but not 'product', i.e. hunting, fishing theorizing)

-Do you imagine work transformed into aesthetic activity, with no thought of usefulness?

-Do you think about it primarily in terms of a practical rejection of work in the here and now (i.e. dumpster diving, squatting, Rimbaud living at his mom's house, etc.)

How much does the difference between these answers matter? Are there possibilities I haven't thought of?

Comments

i like the question(s).

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I'm going with the third option with the assumption that the population of the planet is less populated than it is than today. I engage in those activities and they're not that hard of "work." Well, I guess it depends on what one is hunting for and what tool they're using to kill the animal.

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I'm staying with my elderly parents this week.
For dinner, i went out into the small garden i built for them - a couple of afternoons playing with saw and hammer, and a couple more playing with fork and hoe -  picked late season beans and pulled some fresh carrots, later dug some potatoes for tomorrows meal.
So, i excerted effort, i gained yield from said effort, did i 'work'??  -  well, i stretched out my muscles, commended the plants on their growth, blessed and thanked the worms i found in the soil, and found no hardship in the task.
These two small beds have fed my parents all summer, with enough to share with their neighbor, and with a long list of innocent bystanders.  And more than a few passing acquaintances have been only too happy to dump their excess fruition on us.  :)

This is the natural state of the human race.  I say this because we do it without coercion, often we do this in open defiance of government regulations.  If we took this attitude to matters beyond our food ....

Any society that is not completely suicidal, can easily find a way to do the shit that needs to be done, without resorting to 'work'.
The currently dominant society can't -- 'nugh said.

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How small or big are the gardens that you built for them, clodbuster? I've found it rather hard at having a garden that produces enough veggies for me to eat.  This could also have to do with what I'm planting and how I'm arranging it and what not.

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GardeningAndMudBuilding101 Q&A

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great question, and i like the elaboration in your followup questions.

as clodbuster (and human) alluded to, a working (heh) definition of "work" might be in order.