Unwilling to Work for Wages, Limited in Ability, Without Capital, and Facing Starvation: A Human Predicament at the Heart of Marx and Zhuangzi

The pursuit of ability and capital intensifies our anxiety and unease. Yet we forget that we originally pursued ability and capital to resolve that anxiety and unease. Human beings become subordinate to and enslaved by the labor process (such as Taylorism) and the fruits of labor (capital).

Labor turns from human praxis into a personal prison. Ability turns from human agency in the philosophical sense into reins and a saddle imposed on the individual (Zhuangzi, “Horses’ Hooves”).

Not wanting to work for a wage—having limited ability—having no capital—facing starvation: Marx and Zhuangzi deeply understood this tragic human fate. This is not an individual predicament; it is a human predicament.

Human philosophy and knowledge have two fundamental purposes: freedom and happiness. Marxism is about freedom. Zhuangzi saw that the problem of freedom could not be resolved within a few thousand years, but that happiness was actually not so difficult. Epicurus, who lived around the same period, took a similar view (he was a subject of Marx’s doctoral dissertation; see my video analysis), hence the disparaging label “the philosophy of pleasure.”