‘I am my work’ or not?
End of the world where your profession was your identity.Who are you? a hardworking miner? courageous journalist? methodical accountant? well, you most likely are simply confused, aren’t you.
Jacques Tati was one of those rare geniuses who could see the world changing and hold the mirror to it. Many of his movies depict people trying to cope (comically) with the fast approaching modernity. In the movie ‘The Illusionist’, an aging magician experiences the decline of his craft and gracefully interacts with this adversarial change.
Through his films, Tati brings alive a world for the last time, a world that was beautiful and deserved a better future. His films accept the inevitability of change gracefully, but leaves the viewer with a warm melancholy of a world lost.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/04179370-4741-11e3-b4d3-00144feabdc0.html
FT talked about something similar recently. As more and more jobs get outsourced to machines, and the quickening pace of change forces us to shift jobs quickly, we can no longer identify with ‘professions’. (apart from doctors perhaps). I am a ‘planner’ with an advertising agency these days. I am pretty sure, advertising won’t exist as it does today, in 10 years.
Perhaps, there is an opportunity here. Opportunity to sculpt our identity not through mere labels, but with acts and self belief.I am a human being with dignity.
