Goodbye, Protestant Work Ethic. Hello, Hindu Work Ethic!
You cannot H1-B the Faustian spirit and contemplative life.
What is a nation for? A nation is for its people. What are people for? That is a much harder question. Over the centuries, great philosophers have grappled with this. Aristotle said a person is meant for eudaemonia, whereas the Epicureans said a person is intended to have a good time. Fast forward to today, and the closest we get to any of that is Jordan Peterson saying a person is for some vaguely defined “meaning.”
Like most consumable pop thinkers, Jordan Peterson serves a certain function in the “Neoliberal”1 system. Human beings are achievement subjects meant to maximize shareholder value. Alternatively, a human being can be an entrepreneur, turning life into a job. Importantly, both are consumers. Some people revolt against consumerism (by buying more consumer products). My mom told me she saw an ad for a dopamine detox. If there is an ad, there is a product. There is no need to purchase a product for a dopamine detox.
People are for making the green line go up. That is the faith of America today. America is no longer a nation. America is an economic zone. Whoever makes the green line go up the most is the most human.
Weber noticed that Protestants understood how working harder would make them more human. Diligently working was understood as an indication that one was part of the elect. This was not a conscious decision by Protestants to spawn capitalism. Rather, their work ethic opened the door for unbridled global capitalism.
In the great H1-B war of Christmas 2024, Vivek Ramaswamy chimed in with a long post about how America praises mediocrity over excellence. Americans have become complacent in “normalcy,” whereas Asian immigrants want to pursue excellence. Vivek’s cultural transformation would mean:
More movies like Whiplash, fewer reruns of “Friends.” More math tutoring, fewer sleepovers. More weekend science competitions, fewer Saturday morning cartoons. More books, less TV. More creating, less “chillin.” More extracurriculars, less “hanging out at the mall.”
The Hindu work ethic has spoken. Move over, Protestant work ethic. You have spent too much time “chillin” and “hanging out.” The assumption behind Vivek’s post, as well as many others arguing that Americans do not work hard enough, is that a 40-hour workweek does not cut it. An 80-hour work week should be the new standard. Americans should be working like dogs, burning the candle at both ends and destroying their nervous systems with energy drinks.
This new American culture would kill American culture. The pursuit of excellence is great and Faustian. But the Faustian spirit is not just working overtime. The Faustian spirit is conquest. Vivek’s cultural vision is not conquest; it is grinding. The Faustian spirit drove Europeans to conquer the New World, set foot on the moon, and open the world of modern discoveries we take for granted today. A lot of hard work went into that, but the hard work itself was not the point. The Faustian spirit demands victory at all costs, not sixty hours of spreadsheet work a week until death.
Discussing time, Han echoes Weber’s sentiment:
Life dominated by work is a vita activa which is entirely cut off from the vita contemplativa. If the human being loses capacity for all contemplation, it degenerates into an animal laborans… Work is totalized to such a degree that outside of working hours the only time that remains is that which is to be killed.2
When the point of life is work, activity reigns. Contemplation is thrown out. It is a waste of time to slow down and think aimlessly purely for the joy of discovery and self-reflection. Insofar as contemplation is permitted by the structure of modern life, it is kept within specific bounds and sold as a product.
There is no conflict between the Faustian spirit and the contemplative life. The drive to conquest and victory in mental and scientific enterprises has driven Western thought for centuries.
American culture does need more “chillin” and “hanging out.” The greatness of our nation and our heritage is not found in overtime bonuses and a higher GDP. It is found in the quiet moments of reflection that open up a new way of looking at things. The immigrant’s superstar valedictorian child does not do this. He stays up until 2 AM with an intense focus on test preparation. He does not know leisure.
Returning to the opening question: what is a nation for? A nation is for its people. But how is a nation for its people? The purpose of a nation is to lift its people, not in some materialistic standard of progress, but toward transcendence. A nation is a collective vehicle fueled by a shared culture that gives support and enforces meaning for a population. Work is important to put food on the table, yes, but even more important is leisure and contemplation.
Pieper says in Leisure: Basis of Culture:
The deepest root, then, from which leisure draws its sustenance - and leisure implies the realm of everything that, without being useful, nevertheless belongs to a complete human existence - the deepest root of all this lies in worshipful celebration.3
Without leisure, there is no space for the cultic and worshipful traditions that form an efficacious belief structure of a people. The Protestant work ethic lost the plot; that is why we have mega-churches that operate like hype fest rave businesses. Hinduism may have nothing to do with the driving force of the East Asian immigrants willing to work live slaves on their H1-B visas, but they are forcing Americans to hold themselves to a higher standard nonetheless. Vivek thinks this points to a detriment in American culture. He is right. It does. But his solution is even worse.
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I hate this term and am looking for a better one, but it gets the point across.
Byung-Chul Han, The Scent of Time: A Philosophical Essay on the Art of Lingering, trans. Daniel Steuer (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2017), 92.
Josef Pieper, Leisure: The Basis of Culture, trans. Gerald Malsbary (South Bend, IN: St. Augustine's Press, 1998), 74.
They think they are the nation and the meaning of life is making them richer. Pass. I’d turn to a life of crime before I’d spend my life in drudgery.
"A nation is a collective vehicle fueled by a shared culture that gives support and enforces meaning for a population."
These things have effectively disappeared from Western countries over the past decades. And that is why anyone with the power and influence can step in and implement their very own vision of a nation. "Nation" in the Western context today is an almost empty term, a shell that those in power put on and take off, filling it with whatever they desire—whatever fits the moment. And contemplation as a building block of a nation is something these people have decisively rejected. As you said, the green line must go up. Too much thinking only harms that goal.