Jigsaw puzzle depicting two sailing vessels. In the
foreground is a vessel prepared for wintering in the Arctic, a whale and
an explorer being chased by a polar bear. The title: ‘THE SORCERER OF
THE NORTH POLE OR CAPTAIN ROSS’S VISION’ is printed in the lower right.
The jigsaw is made up of 70 pieces with one missing. Made 1819
The problem with the idea of 8 hours of work, 8 hours of sleep and 8 hours of recreation as a structure for a day is that it simply can’t work that way. If I’m expected to be at work at 9, then my work day must begin at 7. Allowing myself a rushed experience to wake up and get to work. And I live close to work. So either my recreation or my sleep needs to take a hit, but for some people it could be more. 8 hours a day, 5 days a week as a basis for full time work is honestly unreasonable at that point. Because it isn’t actually 40 hours a week, it’s 50 hours a week lost to a job, of which 10 is unpaid.
some of my coworkers have 2h of transit to get to work, which takes 4-5h off their free time. working full time is a bad idea and shouldve never been a thing
And let’s not forget that maintaining a clean home and providing food for yourself takes over 20 hours a week (appx 20 hours in-house, and varying hours spent running outside errands) if you are completely abled.
I also once saw an article that said that fucking peasants had more vacation time than people today. Considering the barriers to entry to get past the minimum wage trap today, this is the reason why this generation is the most depressed ever.
I’m willing to bet it was this article, which is good, though slightly misleading, as it doesn’t adequately address day shifts and labor demands.
That’s what people will complain about as being misleading when you present it to them. After all, during summer, workers did 16 hour shifts.
Comparing a us worker who works 5 days a week and gets 5 weeks of vacation (the sort of middle class experience we all dream of), there are about 130 “days off” for them.
Assuming a more typical lower class work schedule, with two part time jobs that over lap such that you only have one day a week off, that would be about 52 days off (already less than half, ouch).
For a “medieval” work day, the duration would vary based on sunrise and sunset times, changing annually from 16 hours to 6 and back to 16 each summer.
However, these shifts were broken into regular, long breaks, considered critical for the health and ability of the workers. Generally, there were three meals, two snacks, and a long afternoon nap every work day. Work itself happened for 2-3 hours before the next break. This is a condition that I guarantee you everyone who has ever worked a 12-and-12 wishes were the case today. Or even a 9-5.
Of the calendar year, there were 180 or more holidays scattered, with the largest being the 12 days of Christmas, and whatever that week before Easter is called. There were multiple holidays a month, and every Sunday was always a rest day, no matter what.
In addition, the highly seasonal nature of European living meant you had a lot of down time for long, long periods in winter, even if you kept livestock.
Additionally, the European style of farming, which required fallow fields every few years, created a cultural sense that long rest periods are necessary for the growth of the farmers just as much as for the growth of the farm.
So, basically, although life was worse in almost every way, especially medically and socially, in terms of labor the middle ages have us beat pretty soundly. Even the longest shifts were split into sets of 2-3 hours each, with long breaks between. Half-ish of the year was spent doing no work at all.
You couldn’t pay me enough to go live in that time period, but there are definitely some labor practices we need to bring back into vogue.
What a neat post, I really appreciate the additional information! I had no idea, I just always heard that peasants were treated about as good as slaves so that is pretty surprising. It does make me wonder though, if the majority of the common folk were illiterate, what did they even do during the downtime between the farming seasons?
Music, sex, storytelling, drinking a shitload of crap beer, football/soccer, other sports, gambling, hunting, generally outdoorsy shit, ice skating was pretty common, church, festivals (most of these off-days were holidays after all), fighting, watching other people fight (jousting, boxing, duelling, etc), travel and pilgrimage… there’s a lot of things people do and did that don’t involve reading or industry.
Also, given how extremely physical a lot of the labour was at the time, I imagine there was significantly more sleeping and recuperating from physical strain than you might expect, too, though I can’t say I’ve ever seen any kind of source on that.
You know late stage capitalism has fucked up when ppl are envious of feudalistic labour practices
You all, fools: *getting tattoos based on the ancient tattoos they find on bog mummies and the other ancient dead that for all you know will bind you to a forgotten god that now by all rights has a claim on your life for better or for worse*
Me, and intellectual: *doesnt fucking do that*
A forgotten god cannot run my life any worse than I am currently running it myself.
Mark Zuckerberg lost $119 Billion dollars on the stock market today (7/26/18). This is the largest loss of wealth in a single day in modern stock history.
This will literally not change his lifestyle or effect his livelihood at all. He is still a multi-billionaire.
If I worked every single day, for the rest of my life, at $15/hr – which is more than twice the national minimum wage – I would never make even 1/1000th the amount of just the money that Zuckerberg lost today.
If I worked every single day, for the entirety of the time that anatomically modern humans have existed (200,000 years) – at $15/hr – I would still not make one tenth of the amount of just the money he lost today.
And he is still a billionaire and will lose literally zero luxury or well-being from what happened today.
You want to know how absolutely grotesque modern wealth inequality is?
Okay but the first set of gifs is not a joke like that’s literally how it goes.
One of the girls at work won’t get in the guy’s car unless he agrees to let her take photos of him and his license plate to text to her mother. If he gets mad or makes a fuss she cancels the date and goes back inside.
Reblogging for that 👆🏼👆🏼👆🏼
I’ve had someone take pics of me and my license plate on a first date before & I was okay with it. I’ve also had a friend allow me to view the tracking on her phone when she went to meet up with a guy the first time. This isn’t a joke at all & women have good reason to worry.
i have only ever met 2 people online, and made sure that we met up somewhere that was 1) public 2) close to my home.
After, I walked to the dollar store that was a couple shops down until I knew they were gone, before walking home.
Louis C.K. kind of nailed it. Men worry that their date won’t measure up to their aesthetic preferences. Women worry that they’re going wind up dead.
The disparity is RIDICULOUS, and the fact that dudes get offended when women try to protect themselves is hard proof that way too many guys Do Not Understand how dangerous it is to be a woman. (Not to mention it’s fucking insulting. “How dare you not trust your life and safety to a complete stranger whose intentions you have no way of knowing”?)
Lookin’ at the notes on this post following my earlier reblog and just
going….
Wow. WOW. Look at all these sheltered people and their internalized misogyny.
The point isn’t, “NOT ALL MEN ARE OUT TO GET YOU.”
The point is, “WE HAVE NO WAY OF KNOWING A NICE GUY FROM A SERIAL KILLER.”
It’s
not like they fucking wear nametags, okay? Moreover, the most awful people with the worst intentions often put on the nicest face or deliberately make themselves seem harmless and likeable, to lull potential victims into a false sense of security. (Read up on Ted Bundy sometime. It’s horrifying shit. Or read any thread on the “Let’s Not Meet” subreddit.)
In order to protect ourselves, we are forced to assume the worst of every man we meet, because statistically speaking, the biggest danger to women…IS MEN. Saying “not all men are out to get you, you’re just being paranoid” is like saying “not every car you ride in is going to crash, so buckling your seatbealt is stupid.”
When dealing with an unknown situation, in the absence of absolute proof of safety, exercising a little extra caution can be the difference between life and death. Shaming women for being what you may view as overly cautious is every bit as horrid as blaming them if something goes wrong later on.
And refusing to go to a
secluded location with a complete stranger without letting someone know
where you’re going, who you’re with, and how to find you is just common street sense, whether you’re on a date or just going out for business or social purposes.
If your life has been so sheltered (or your coping skills so incredible) that you see no need to distrust strangers or worry about the potential for violence, you should thank your lucky stars.
And you should also be aware that just because it hasn’t happened to you or anyone you know does not mean that it doesn’t happen.
Lemme say that louder for the people in the back.
Just because it hasn’t happened to you or anyone you know does not mean that it doesn’t happen.
Re-Reblog for relevant commentary.
And if you won’t take a woman’s word for it because you are some kind of asshat, men who sleep with men also mirror these rituals because even men are afraid of other men based on men’s behavior and inability to understand “no” or take rejection well.
I’ll stop reblogging this when it stops being relevant
Alllll of this. Being paranoid will often save your life. Assholes who say otherwise need to shut their noise holes and stop acting like they know better.
PSA
If I ever get in a new guy’s car I ALWAYS take a pic of him, the vehicle, the plate #, and send it to numerous ppl.
Also, it’s story time! I’m pretty certain I saved my mom’s fucking LIFE by convincing her do this on a date with a fucking COP (which she thought was safer than going out with other men, but let me tell you, cops are the WORST partner abusers around, so pls be safe!!!!).
She had only talked with him online and they were gonna go for a drive somewhere remote for some reason and she wasn’t going to take any precautions at all. I, being a well seasoned internet dater, was terrified by this prospect and warned her about how cops are actually much more dangerous than civilians and that getting in his car and going somewhere remote was even more dangerous. SO, I told her the best thing to do is to take a pic of him, his plates, then send it to me, and make sure you do it all right in front of him SO HE SEES IT. I warned her too that as a cop he should KNOW how dangerous this date would be for her, so if he kicks up a fuss about it AT ALL I told her to run like the fucking wind.
So when she gets there, he is already in his fucking truck, doesn’t get out to greet her, so she takes the pics of his car, plates, and him and sends it to me and I thank her profusely. Then apparently she gets in his car, sees there’s a fucking BAT in the back, and doesn’t this fucker just kick up a damn fuss about her doing this. AND MY MOM DOESN’T GET OUT OF THE CAR!!!!!! OMFGWLJELWNLWEJFANMDS
So he starts the car and they drive away and she can already tell he’s a fucking creeper. At one point, he even tells her a truly sad story of his life and she reacts sadly and doesn’t this dickhead say “why aren’t you smiling?” as if that’s what women are FOR. She responds “You had just told me a very sad, personal story, smiling didn’t seem appropriate”, as if she’s just there for smile back at him and look pretty!!!!
She texts me throughout all of this, telling me she’s increasingly getting uncomfortable and scared. He’s becoming increasingly hostile and unpleasant. She eventually texts me to ask me to call her and pretend to be my younger sister that lives with her saying that I’m sick (my mom’s a nurse). But my younger sis is 26, has a baby, is a personal support worker with some medical knowledge; and that didn’t seem like something strong enough to me that would make this dangerous fucker give up my mom.
So what do I do?
I called her and pretended I was my little sister crying and freaking out because her baby is super sick and she needs her nurse mom at her side bc this is WAY beyond her knowledge or comfort level. Thankfully that worked and he turned around. But he wasn’t happy and that bat was still in the back, staring mom in the goddamn face.
Later she called me and thanked me profusely and she STILL talks about it and how scary it was and how she is CERTAIN the real reason he turned around was bc I had insisted she send me those pictures.
Everyone, please be safe, definitely definitely take precautions! But also know that if something bad ever has or does happen to you, it’s NEVER your fault, even if you “didn’t take the right precautions”. That victim blaming rape culture nonsense is bullshit.
Psa
There’s a principal in evolution – false positives cost less than false negatives.
If the bushes rustle and there’s no tiger there but you ran away because there might have been a tiger, you had to stop what you were doing and you lost a few calories running away.
If, even once, the bushes rustle and you don’t run away because it might not be a tiger, you’re lunch.
Hey there, shoutout to folks who don’t date dudes: please don’t scroll past this just because you don’t date men!
You know men, don’t you? They‘re your coworkers, neighbors, coreligionists, teammates, fellow committee members, and what have you. Yeah, maybe the danger is less when it’s not a date situation, but basically, any time you’re getting in a car with a (relatively) unknown guy, make sure someone knows where you are, who you’re with, and where you’re going.
And also please, let’s do what we can to keep our dude-dating friends safe.
Meg's Mumbles 