"A society in which vocation and job are separated for most people gradually creates an economy that is often devoid of spirit, one that frequently fills our pocketbooks at the cost of emptying our souls"
About this Quote
A clean paystub can be a dirty bargain, Sam Keen warns, when work becomes something you do for money rather than something that expresses who you are. The bite of his phrasing comes from the split he insists is not merely economic but existential: vocation as calling, job as transaction. Once most people live on the transaction side, the whole system starts to mirror that emptiness - productivity without purpose, growth without meaning, a marketplace fluent in incentives but illiterate in significance.
Keen’s intent is diagnostic as much as moral. He’s not romanticizing artisanal bliss; he’s naming a social design problem. When institutions treat workers as interchangeable, people learn to treat themselves that way too. “Devoid of spirit” isn’t mystical language so much as a cultural metric: fewer chances to feel agency, pride, mastery, or service. The subtext is that alienation is cumulative. It doesn’t just harm individuals; it seeps into the economy’s outputs - hollow brands, cynical management, short-termism, burnout masquerading as ambition.
The quote lands in a late-20th-century context where “career” became identity and corporate life became the default container for adulthood. Keen, associated with humanistic psychology and the men’s movement, is pushing back on the era’s bargain: trade meaning for stability, then medicate the ache with consumption. The final image is surgical: pocketbooks filling, souls emptying. It’s not anti-work; it’s anti-disconnection, a critique of a society that pays us to be strangers to ourselves.
Keen’s intent is diagnostic as much as moral. He’s not romanticizing artisanal bliss; he’s naming a social design problem. When institutions treat workers as interchangeable, people learn to treat themselves that way too. “Devoid of spirit” isn’t mystical language so much as a cultural metric: fewer chances to feel agency, pride, mastery, or service. The subtext is that alienation is cumulative. It doesn’t just harm individuals; it seeps into the economy’s outputs - hollow brands, cynical management, short-termism, burnout masquerading as ambition.
The quote lands in a late-20th-century context where “career” became identity and corporate life became the default container for adulthood. Keen, associated with humanistic psychology and the men’s movement, is pushing back on the era’s bargain: trade meaning for stability, then medicate the ache with consumption. The final image is surgical: pocketbooks filling, souls emptying. It’s not anti-work; it’s anti-disconnection, a critique of a society that pays us to be strangers to ourselves.
Quote Details
| Topic | Work |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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