The Occupy movement has dominated social and conventional media for weeks now, and I’ve seen so many different points of view flung around. There are those who call themselves ‘the 99%’, those who are called the ‘1%’, those who claim not to be part of ‘the 99%’ because of the perceived attitudes they see in ‘the 99%’, and even those who call themselves ‘the 53%’. But there is one aspect of contention between these groups that I’d like to address, an aspect I’ve had time to mull over for quite some time: what it means to ‘work’.

Now, I’m a workaholic. I don’t feel it, but I’m told it by everyone I know. I literally don’t know how to stop, yet I constantly feel like I’m under-performing. The hard part for me is living in a highly materialistic society (I moved to the US 3 years ago), but having visa restrictions that make it very difficult for me to making a good living straight from the get go.

What I’ve noticed, especially in the wide backlash against the 99ers, is a torrent of shared stories about how hard people work, how many jobs they’ve had, how much they’ve suffered, and how hard life still is. Whilst it is sad to know that so many work for so little, there is a mass demonstration of work-related masochism on a national scale, a pride in unjust circumstances.

Consider the following excerpts from letters I’ve found:

I’ve never asked nor do I ever want to ask for someone to help me.

I pay taxes to support deadbeats and yet I am literally killing myself working 16 hours a day in my business to make ends meet (maybe 4 days off in the last year).

Please stay off my street, because I’m part of the 53% paying for it.  

I implore you not to misunderstand my point here. I’m not here to point fingers and accuse, I’m here to raise awareness of people’s ‘this is the way it is’ attitude. Instead of dealing with problems at the root, our society increasingly seeks shortcuts to tackle the symptoms but not the causes. If life is hard, suck it up.

I’m afraid I feel very differently. I do not believe that life is meant to be suffered through with no end in sight, I believe that challenges are presented us that we might rise to the occasion, overcome them, and grow. I believe that if something hurts, then it is a sign that there is something wrong.

Somehow, we have forgotten our own humanity and made it okay to live that way.

Perhaps it is time to re-think what it means ‘to work’. Consider the following quotes from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá:

Therefore strive that your actions day by day may be beautiful prayers. Turn towards God, and seek always to do that which is right and noble. Enrich the poor, raise the fallen, comfort the sorrowful, bring healing to the sick, reassure the fearful, rescue the oppressed, bring hope to the hopeless, shelter the destitute!

His thoughts on taxation:

Each person in the community whose need is equal to his individual producing capacity shall be exempt from taxation.  But if his income is greater than his needs, he must pay a tax until an adjustment is effected.  That is to say, a man’s capacity for production and his needs will be equalized and reconciled through taxation. If his production exceeds, he will pay a tax; if his necessities exceed his production, he shall receive an amount sufficient to equalize or adjust.  Therefore, taxation will be proportionate to capacity and production, and there will be no poor in the community.

And finally:

Work done in the spirit of service is the highest form of worship.