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Perspective: Blue collar arrogance

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A couple of weeks ago, when I was sitting in the sauna at one of our local health clubs, this guy sauntered in (I suspect every sauna has a “Guy”). “You must work in an office,” this white-bearded retiree scoffed, recalling that in a previous encounter I’d left the sauna after about ten minutes. “How would you know?” I asked. “Because you can’t stand the heat,” he replied smugly. Then he went on about how he used to work out in the sun when it was 80 degrees.

 

Being from the South, and having worked outdoors plenty of summers, 80 degrees didn’t impress me.

 

I’d be lying if I said that white-collar arrogance isn’t a thing. But so is blue-collar arrogance, the belief that physical labor is morally superior to intellectual labor. Every corner tavern has its own self-appointed experts in epidemiology, constitutional law, education, economics, and any number of other fields that require advanced study.

 

I agree with Mahatma Gandhi that no one should belittle anyone else for the work they do. He required high-caste brahmins who lived in his ashram to clean latrines alongside the so-called “untouchables” (for some of them, that was a deal-breaker). Gandhi insisted that there is nobility and honor in all kinds of work, which should be respected, valued, and sufficiently compensated. I would never dream of telling someone how to wire a house, cut down a tree, repair a car, or build a road; but I am regularly told either how to do my job by people who know nothing about it, or that it’s totally useless.

 

If anything makes me better than Sauna Santa, it’s not the kind of work I do: it’s that I don’t obsess about how long other guys can stay in the sauna.

 

I’m Taylor Atkins and that’s my perspective.

Taylor Atkins is a history professor at Northern Illinois University.