A major problem I’ve seen with farmers, construction workers and engineers is that they think that only they do real work. I’ve heard it stated in a newsletter that “True complexities are in production, complexities in management and accounting are due to fraud and incompetence.” That is an extreme view. Much more common is denigration of science, psychology and creative pursuits.
I am going to address such arguments here.
Science is at the root of most of what business sells. Without science, there would be no technology, and capitalism would be nothing but exchange of basic commodities at the level it was in Medieval Persia. An anti-science American owes to science his truck, his air conditioning and his TV, not to mention his computer and mobile phone. Denigration of science is one of the most irresponsible stances that a person can take.
Psychology is important for two main reasons. First, it is used constantly in marketing, management and human relations – work that takes 80% of business expense. Even conservative businesses constantly use psychology. Another is that it takes a lot less money to hire a psychologist to check someone’s criminal tendencies than it does to lock him up. In both cases, psychology’s contribution is major, and it is a field that should be held in high esteem.
Most common of all is denigration of the creative pursuits. This is wrong as well. First, artistic touch is necessary in any number of major fields, such as interior design, clothes design and architecture. Another is that arts education is needed in a number of fields besides these. Arts education builds attention to detail, which is necessary in engineering and construction work; it also builds imagination and creative thinking that is needed in business and invention. Finally, civilizations are known by their artwork, and a person who has produced a good piece of art has contributed meaningfully to the civilization.
All three of these pursuits are there for a reason, and in all cases the reason is a good one. Thinking that only what one does is important is arrogance and intolerance that fails to acknowledge that the world consists of many people not like oneself, and it’s necessary to work with people who are not like oneself without killing one another. I know nobody who thinks that farming, construction work or engineering are parasitical. It is in order that farmers, construction workers and engineers stop seeing these other pursuits as parasitical as well.