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[- Perseverance ?
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By jennyperlin, Section question corner
Posted on Thu May 1st, 2003 at 09:15:30 AM EURODISCORDIA TIME
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How does the cycle of work, success, depression, and back to work, continue to manifest itself in the US today? I recently finished a 16mm film, Perseverance & How to Develop It, which seeks to link issues of the growth of industry in the early 20th century, and how this relied on self-help books to instill a drive for success in young workers.
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| I am particularly interested in opinions on how this cycle, outlined in the film and below, functions in today’s society (in the US). Given that most assembly-line and manufacturing jobs have been taken from the US and moved overseas, exploiting cheap labor, how does this cycle function in a service-dominated society? What are some strategies to break this pattern? The film does not advocate escapism, but seeks to link these ideas historically—I’d be grateful for ideas on how these things manifest themselves in the present.
Perseverance & How to Develop It was a book published in 1915. Its concluding chapter, "Practical Exercises," outlined five tasks to be practiced on a daily basis. Untangling yarn, counting grains of rice, measuring oneself against a watch-- these tasks made for success, by disciplining the mind and body. The exercises bear a striking resemblance to movements along an assembly line.
Perseverance’s publication came at the apex of the Ford Motor Company assembly line. Two years later, Sigmund Freud’s essay "On Mourning and Melancholia” appeared, describing a phenomenon we now call depression. The appearance of these texts--at the height of American industrialization and World War I--was not a coincidence. To become a productive member of society, whether working in the city or preparing for war, young men needed to manage moods and develop self-control. Today, workaholism, the widespread use of psychopharmaceuticals, self-help, and an insatiable quest for “happiness” resonate with Perseverance, written nearly 100 years ago.
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