Rights Scolding

Extract from From David Graeber's 'Bullsh*t Jobs'

"There are a million ways to make a human feel unworthy. The United States, so often a pioneer in such areas, has, among other things, perfected a quintessentially American mode of political discourse that consists in lecturing others about what jerks they are to think they have a right to something. Call it "rights-scolding." Rights-scolding has many forms and manifestations. There is a right-wing version, which centres on excoriating others for thinking the world owes them a living, or owes them medical treatment when they are gravely ill, or maternity leave, or workplace safety, or equal protection under the law. But there is also a left-wing version, which consists of telling people to "check their privilege" when they feel they are entitled to pretty much anything that some poorer or more oppressed person does not have.



According to these standards, even if one is beaten over the head by a truncheon and dragged off to jail for no reason, one can only complain about injustice if one first specifies all the categories of people to which this is more likely to occur. Rights-scolding may have seen it's most baroque development in North America, but it has spread all over the world with the rise of neoliberal market ideologies [many Australians would find these arguments familiar]. Under such conditions, it's understandable that demanding an entirely new , unfamiliar, right - such as the right to meaningful employment - might seem a hopeless project. It's hard enough nowadays being taken seriously when asking for things you're already supposed to have.



The burden of rights-scolding falls above all on the younger generations. In most wealthy countries, the current crop of people in their twenties represents the first generation in more than a century that can, on the whole, expect opportunities and living standards substantially worse than those enjoyed by their parents. Yet at the same time, they are lectured relentlessly from both left and right on their sense of entitlement for feeling they might deserve anything else. This makes it especially difficult for younger people to complain about meaningless employment."


David Graeber is a professor of anthropology at the London School of Economics. His many books include The Utopia of Rules, The Democracy Project and the bestselling Debt: The First 5000 Years.  A frequent guest on the BBC, he writes for, among others, the Guardian, Strike!, the Baffler and New Left Review. He lives in London.