Category: philosophical counseling
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‘Meaningful Work’ as the Last Motivator of Overwork
I am deeply concerned about overwork and about the overvaluation of work in Western culture. I have had far too many philosophical conversations with young and old over the years not to be so concerned. Most insidious, I have come to believe, has been the coinage of “meaningful work” and the hungry aspiration on the…
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The Ugly Reality of Work: Bullshit Jobs and Emotional Labor
A most disturbing trend in the service industry (but also beyond service) is that toward emotional labor. What makes this trend disturbing and revolting is the connection between bullshit work (restylized in Orwellian lingo of the twenty-first century as “meaningful work”) and the masking associating with emotional labor. The correlation proposed: the more bullshit work, the…
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Speaking Well Involves Listening Well First
When we think about eloquence, our thoughts immediately turn to speaking well. And then we are inclined to believe that the eloquent person is just someone who has learned how to say the right thing. Then, should we ourselves wish to become eloquent like him, we would doubtless pour ourselves into practicing saying the right thing, thinking that…
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Excitement and Anti-intellectualism in Philip Kapleau’s The Three Pillars of Zen
I cannot imagine a more bracing, dramatic, stern, and triumphant account of Zen practice than Philip Kapleau’s The Three Pillars of Zen. The very atmosphere of Zen is “lit up,” the mood is intense and alive and awesome, the figures very human while being supremely committed. I can see why the book, published in 1963, has had a…
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Late Bloomers and the Unlikelihood of Second Chances
This world does not look charitably upon late bloomers. So charming are the rarest of late bloomers that this world does not sneer at them or, more like, turn a blind eye to their fate but otherwise, well, woe be to the fellar who discovers a third or a halfway through life that something grand is…
Andrew Taggart, Ph.D. 