By Benjamin Hunnicutt

W ork. The modern fetish1. No previous age has been so enthralled2， or longed for more， rather than less， work to do. No other people have imagined nothing better for their posterity3 than the eternal creation of more work.

Work sits squarely at the center： the enduring economic imperative， political mandate，4 source of morality and social identity. Some have claimed that work has become the modern religion， answering what theologian Paul Tillich5 called the“existential questions” we all have as humans. Robert Hutchins6， legendary president of the University of Chicago， called the faith “salvation by work.”

However， as a faith， work is transient， based on a specific set of historical circumstances. Work may seem to be an eternal given， but what we experience as work is only a few centuries old； an emerging product of history， not an unchanging truth.

Of course， activities necessary to sustain life are fundamental. People have always had to eat. But work as we now understand it， as something abstract—independent of its particular forms （such as plowing， building， trading）—has a modern origin. Hunter-gatherer people had no such general word.

For most of written history， jobs as we know them as a place to go to， away from home and separate from ordinary life， were rare； aspirations， success， meaning， purpose， and identity were found largely in traditions and faiths. It is only with the coming of the Industrial Revolution that work as we now understand it emerged， defined by specific modern characteristics such as being hired and paid， resulting in clear， and now fundamental， divisions of work and life.

Not only is this work a recent accident of history， it is flimsy7 and fragile. Our belief in the everlasting creation of new work to sustain eternal full-time， full employment is one of historys all-time， fantastic utopian8 dreams. Even the short-term looks increasingly bleak.

Assurances that new work will automatically be created as economies grow are less and less convincing with the approach of a new wave of computers， robots， drones and self-driving vehicles. Few doubt that the vast majority of current jobs that involve doing the same things over and over will soon be replaced by computer algorithms.

More important， work is failing as a faith. Millennials depend less and less on their jobs as the place to realize their dreams， having found the overblown promises of work empty.9 According to a 2014 Harris poll， nearly 70 percent of U.S. employees are not “involved in， enthusiastic about or committed to their work.”

Its not just millennials. Many others feel “betrayed by work，” having made it the centerpiece of their lives and a key source of happiness only to realize how dispensable10 they are when things go wrong， for example if they are passed over for promotion， sidelined or laid off.

People are turning to other， non-earning sources of fulfillment： volunteering， spiritual explorations， relationships， and to alternative venues such as their homes， community spaces or clubs for social and even economic exchanges. Writing in The New York Times， columnist David Brooks describes a shift of values from consumerism and ownership to experiences， a process that is giving life to the burgeoning “experience economy.” Research from McKinsey found that over the past few years spending on experiences—such as eating out and traveling—had grown nearly four times faster than spending on goods.

The prospect of any religions failure is an awful thing for its devotees. Unlike most human beings through history， most of us have no idea that there may be life beyond work. We are unable to imagine， much less believe in an alternative.

There are， however， plenty of alternatives to work that are both more realistic and reliable. I have spent a good deal of my life trying to write a history of labors century-long fight for progressively shorter work hours， and the accompanying dream of what Walt Whitman11 called the “higher progress.”This was once the confident expectation that economic progress was paving the way to humane and moral progress. After providing for the material necessities of life， technology would free us， increasingly， for better things. Eventually we would have plenty of time for family， friends， beauty， joy， creativity， God and nature.

It seems unlikely that the U.S. government will lead the way； legislation providing a guaranteed annual income or limiting work hours seems exceedingly unlikely. What is more likely is that ordinary people， finding better things to do with their lives， will shorten their work hours on their own when they are able to afford it， gradually choosing to “buy back”their lives.

The results of the return of progressively shorter hours would be dramatic. Economists such as Monsignor12 John Ryan reasoned that progressively shorter hours will act to redistribute wealth—value now in the form of capital will gradually flow back to ordinary people in the form of time.

We all might reclaim ownership over more of our lives instead of continuing in thrall13， sacrificing our lives for the profit of the ultra-rich. In this opening realm of freedom， equality might also be within reach； we all have the same amount of hours to live each day.

It would be reckless14 to predict a world entirely without work. However， it is reasonable to expect that work will eventually return to its historical set-point as a means to an end rather than an end in itself. Work can be tamed， and made more of an adornment to life rather than its center. And the forgotten American dream of “higher progress”may be reawakened.

工作。這一现代的癖好。过去没有哪个年代如此痴迷或者渴望更多而非更少的工作。所有人都认为对子孙后代而言没有什么是比源源不断创造出更多工作更好的事情。

工作正坐中央：它是持续的经济需要、政治授权、道德与社会身份的来源。有些人声称工作已经成为了仅有的现代宗教，回答了神学家保罗·田立克所说的我们生而为人都会有的“存在主义问题”。芝加哥大学传奇校长罗伯特·哈钦斯称这种信仰为“通过工作获得救赎”。

然而，作为一种信仰，工作是转瞬即逝的，基于一组特定的历史环境。工作也许似乎理所当然是永恒的，但我们所经历的工作只有几个世纪的历史，是一种才出现没多久的历史产物，而非一种永恒不变的真理。

当然，维持生活所必需的活动是根本的。人类必须一直有东西吃。但我们现在所理解的工作，作为某种抽象的东西——无所谓特定形式（比如耕作、建筑、交易）——起源自现代。原始社会依靠狩猎和采集生活的人类并没有这样宽泛的词汇。

在有文字记录的历史上的大部分时间里，作为某个需要前往的、远离家的地点，与日常生活所分隔开，这种我们所理解的工作是很少见的；渴望、成功、意义、目的和身份主要来自传统和信仰。直到工业革命来临，我们现在所理解的工作才开始出现，这种工作被例如雇佣和薪水等具体的现代特征所定义，从而导致工作和生活出现明确的——如今根本的——区分。

这种工作不仅是历史上较近出现的意外，而且脆弱、易碎。……